The Timeless Piece-The Adventures of Alexandra Sasha Ears
by ShanShanNie
Summary: At age 15, Sasha Ears was abducted from her home by a bizarre force and was thrown into an alternative reality called the Kingdom of AohhoA. To return home, Sasha had to seek approval from the Prince who battled with invaders to defend the timeless nature of the kingdom. During her journey, she encountered creatures with special abilities and discovered her connection with AohhoA.
1. Chapter 1

The Timeless Piece - The Adventures of Alexandra Sasha Ears

Part I

_"The message has leaked. They are on their way here." The Warden announced, pressing on the urgency of the matter, as he carried his round body through the window._

_"It's expected. Their entrance is as much a tradition as it is a personal challenge to me." Though not dismissive, the Voice from behind the velvet curtain was calm, reflecting the speaker's readiness. _

_"But they will be here any moment now." The Warden jumped up, letting out a raucous cry. He then quickly recollected himself, balancing his entire weight on one toe to regain the appearance of steadiness. Nonetheless his high-pitched tone revealed the dismay in what he considered a vague response from the Voice. _

_"I have the key reserved in the outskirt of the Pocket of Origination," the Voice continued, "It is enclosed in a bookcase and kept undisclosed." The Voice then grew louder, as if the speaker had suddenly turned around. "The sun is getting ready to rise, and you should get going." _

_Unmistakably, the Warden recognized it as an order issued from behind the curtain, the divider that draped from ceiling to floor, separating him from the Voice._

_"We will be on our way," the Warden responded. But he only shifted his weight from one toe to another, swaying his hefty body without moving it. He had one more thing to say, "Mind you that we have to do whatever it takes to prevent them from finding out what should be kept as a secret." _

_With the last sentence, he glided back to the window and jumped. In a poof, his round body shrank and he transformed into something small with two wings stretched out from his neck. Once outside, the Warden was greeted by his entourage. To the far distance they flew and into the clouds etched against the sky all of them vanished without a trace. _

Chapter 1

With a sudden and erratic throb of my heart, my body jotted forward. A puff of wind swept my feet off the ground. I dropped my arms and the phone slipped off my hand. I was rising.

_What's going on? _I glanced around, tossing back my head and my waves of hair twirled, flowing around my shoulders. There was a strain in my eyes as I struggled to see what was happening.

Everything surrounding me seemed to be slowing down. Outside the window a bird was flying across the trees. But it looked suspended in midair, its chirping prolonged. Inside the living room Swallow, my cat, was in the middle of a stretch, completing each move one minute at a time. Even the steams from the unfinished coffee on the table ceased rising, forming a white blur atop the mug. _This is weird._ I grew alarmed.

It was like the house was drenched in some invisible flood of oddity. In spite of these halting motions, only I was moving. And I was levitating. Fast.

Out of nowhere I smelled lavender. The fragrance diffused in the warm air. It dispersed like there was an overspill resulted from a deliberate act. It stuffed the room. And I almost choked on it.

"Sasha." I heard a voice calling my name. Or so I thought. "Alexandra Sasha Ears."Again, calling me by my full name. I began to think that someone had thrust me upward. I was reaching the ceiling. I wanted to sit up. But the scent of lavender made me feel exhausted and sleepy. I forced my way to stay conscious, so I could think back of the series of events that led to this point. A wave of flashbacks rushed to me. I remembered that on this cloudy and sluggish summer day, my family and I were supposed to go on a road trip.

"Sasha!" Mom called out from the driveway.

"In a minute!" There I was, hurrying to the door dragging my gray suitcase, while mentally sorting out my list of things for the trip.

I knew that I should be focusing on more urgent matters like that my father had lost his job in Boston a few months ago, and that he was moving to Vermont for a new position over two-hundred miles away. Last week when my parents announced that the family was going to a small town called Enosburg in Vermont, they only told my brother Samuel and me that we were heading there for vacation. "Just for the summer," my parents had said. But I knew. They wanted to see if we would adjust living in Enosburg before the family settled there. To start a new life. That was the plan. And I didn't want to think about it.

It wasn't that I was reluctant to leave Boston. On a number of occasions when I strolled along the tarmac roads through old red brick buildings, I tried to picture what it would be like living a life outside the city. I always felt this curiosity rooted deep inside me and had me itching for something different. But I wasn't sure if, at age fifteen, I was ready to move away from all that I was familiar with just to settle into the stifling suburbia. Right now everything was uncertain and I'd rather just think about what I needed to bring for the moment.

Mom walked around to the back of the car and opened the trunk. Dad loaded up some luggage. I could see Sam fidgeting on the backseat, his sandy hair moving along his tanned cheeks. He made a face at me through the crack of the car trunk. I looked away, pretending not to notice him.

_Sam can't drive me mad_, I told myself. He was ten years my junior and he was just so clueless most of the time. But what really set us apart was how my parents treated us. They adored him, as they did with me. But there was always something different in the way they looked at me. _What is the word? Apologetic._ They catered to my every need, as if they had felt sorry for me. Maybe for the fact that I looked nothing like them.

My mother was of Russian descent with an ample figure. She had wavy and golden hair that draped around her shoulders and complemented her deep-set green eyes. She was not much of a talker. But when she did speak, her voice was deep and steady. My father was from northern China. He was a tall man with broad shoulders. And he had an angular face with a strong and defined jaw-line. While I did inherit my father's long limbs and my mother's pale skin, I was a strange blend.

A mop of thick black hair cascaded in wild waves down to my waist with a few strands crisscrossed my cheeks, coating my almond-shaped eyes. And there was the odd thing about my right eye—a dab of jade around my hazel-colored pupil. I must have looked to my parents like I was at the mercy of a wacky artist. I knew that my parents had done their best to make up for the mishap. But I'd rather nurture my difference in a private way, absent from any unsolicited attention. So at times, I'd rather seek company in Swallow, whose eyes were just like mine.

Swallow peeked out from the car seat. Once she spotted me, she slid out from the carrier and leaped over to me. She paced around my suitcase, sniffed about it and then rubbed her head against my ankle, as I strolled over to the car door. I reached down to rub her chin and on the black tin shield of the window, I caught a reflection of a flock of birds cruising across the cloudy sky.

"Wait, I forgot my cell phone." I suddenly recalled and dropped my case. Without skipping a step, I span around and scurried back into the house, catching a glance of Swallow scuttling beside me.

It didn't take me long to find what I was looking for. The phone was right on the table. It was the third generation of its series. With the thinness of a credit card, it appeared white from a distance. But close up, its pseudo opaque would give away to a tiny chip placed inside. On the chip a dimly lit internal light was visible through the phone's chic cover. There were only two buttons on the cover of the phone, one on each end of the screen.

Snatching up the phone, I was already heading toward the door. But as soon as I griped it, I felt the phone vibrating—there was an incoming call.

When I looked, however, I only saw a red light flashing. There was no display of a name.

_Who is it? _I wondered, and I decided to disregard the buzz. But just as the thought of ignoring it crossed my mind, the phone throbbed. It turned burning hot with the quickness of an irritated driver switching lanes with all his anger.

"Ouch!" My hand jerked in reaction. And in a rush I pressed the button with the circle on it. A number appeared. It looked familiar.

_It's my number._ I gasped at the discovery. _Should I pick it up?_ My heart began to pound fast, and I was intrigued. I pressed the button again. The phone cooled down. Its screen turned black and then a light came back on, signaling that a call had been connected. I brought the phone to my ear and I held my breath.

"Good afternoon!" I heard a man with a screechy voice, "Are you ready to begin your journey?" He asked.

The question took me by surprise. _Who is this person? _I wondered and I wanted to demand a name. But I heard him speak again, "Are you ready to begin your journey?" He asked. _To Enosburg Vermont? How does he know?_ "Yes." I replied in a whisper.

"OK. Confirmed." The man said. I detected a very subtle change in his tone. He seemed excited. "With your permission the Apogee Course is now engaged for your entry." He announced.

I didn't understand what it meant. _What's going on? This is really weird._ For a moment everything grew quiet. Not even a tinkle came through the other end of the line. And the house, too, turned unnervingly silent. I looked around the room and the hands of the clock on the wall seemed to have dissolved. Things became strange, very strange.

"You will take off on the count of three." The man's voice returned. I caught a series of rhythmical noises in the background.

Before I knew what was happening, I started to ascend, my feet dangling off the floor. My body arched back, curving along my spine. My arms dropped down to the floor, releasing the phone. Soon I was reaching the ceiling. The motions of everything surrounding me slowed down. And I just kept on rising. I smelled lavender and I tried to resist the lethargy it invoked in me. _What's happening to me? Stay awake. _I urged myself, trying to break away from whatever force that came over me. But against my will, my eyes shut tight.

And that was the moment when I, as a girl at age fifteen and having lived in nowhere else but a suburb of Greater Boston, got my whole life turned upside down.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Hello? Anyone here?" I called out in a hushed voice. But my question fell flat into the hollowness of the place. I caught nothing but rows after rows of the trees that I couldn't recognize. Oak or Maple trees, perhaps? I was no expert in telling species apart or even naming them. The only trees that I could distinguish with certainty were Tulip trees. We had one in our backyard. How terribly homesick I am right now.

I curved my hands together near my mouth to form the shape of an amplifier. And I decided to project louder. "Hello, hello?"

At first there was no reply but then there came a response. "Yello, yello?" It was hard to discern whether the sound was just my own echo.

The "yello" went on but it was trailing off fast. I decided to follow it and track down its source. With an attentive ear, I determined that the noise came from somewhere near the ground and I started searching. Soon I caught a glint of something and I turned to my left. What seized my attention right away was a pear-like fruit dangling from a slim twig that stuck out from the lawn. Its color was bright red against the muddy green grass. I walked over cautiously and careened my head in its direction. The red pear swung from left to right, and with each pulse it rang "yello". At last it made a "ding" sound and broke off from the stick. I cupped my hands together just quickly enough to catch it.

The red pear seemed ripe and fresh, its surface dazzling. The raindrops from earlier gleamed on it, making the fruit appear splendid. I was not that hungry. But the pear in my hands was so inviting that I wanted to bite into it. My saliva pooled in my mouth. And I brought the pear to my lips.

Just when my teeth were about to make their marks, "Hold it there!" I heard a shout and caught sounds coming out from the pear. Shocked, I staggered backwards, losing my grip and tossing the fruit in a terrified move.

And the pear went up in the air and landed on a branch slightly above my eyebrows, "Just what did you think you were doing?" I heard it ask me.

"I was just...just about to eat it, well, I meant you." I tried to explain but I was too flustered at this talking pear to speak properly. Kneeling on the ground I gazed up. I saw arms and legs stretched out from the pear. And I saw its lips, from which sound continued gushing out.

"I..I..I...was just." The pear jeered, apparently mocking my response. I felt my cheeks turned hot. But he went on while waving his arms like he was swatting a fly. "Your manners, young lady! It's utterly horrendous to greet your superior with such an impulsive and reckless act." Words were firing out from the pear fast. And his saliva splattered everywhere. I finally stood up.

"I didn't know," I said. I had to step back to avoid drowning in his pear juice.

"I didn't know." He went on with his mockery, making my utterance sound whinier than it was delivered. "Let me tell you something." He was about to start lecturing again.

"Wait!" I called out. I had to stop him before he dived into the juice spattering. What is going on? I felt so confused. I combed my hair with my fingers, and I tucked the loose strands that hung down to my forehead to the back of my ears. Don't freak out. At least don't let it show. I said to myself. I let a moment of silence go by so I could gather myself. Then I said, "Tell me please. Where am I?"

"Ah! That burns!" The pear exclaimed suddenly, padding the back of his head in a spasm. He stomped around and I waited, till he seemed to have calmed down. "Well," he said, there was a change in his attitude. He shut his eyes and elevated his voice. "You are in the honorably reproductive AkxieMoreRun Forest of the prestigious Kingdom of AohhoA."

I only caught a few words of his longwinded sentence, like the "forest" and the "kingdom". "Wait, what Kingdom?" I asked.

"The Kingdom of AohhoA, the land of the timeless, of course." He replied.

"The land of the timeless?"

"Yes, meaning that everything in here remains unchanged and that the state of affairs perpetually repeats itself in a cycle. You should have known this." He said, chiding me.

"But I don't. I mean I didn't." I responded.

The pear shot a glance at me and went on. "It's where the great peace of the unchanged is preserved through the reservation of the status quo. It is where the notion of variables is compromised for the continuation of the constant."

Gosh, what's going on? I could not wrap my head around his rambling. He was verbose. And he sputtered his words like he was shooting bullets at me. I had the impulse to dodge. All that I could grasp was that somehow I had ended up in a bizarre place. And now I was having a conversation with a pear that talked. I gripped my shorts tightly and I inhaled deeply, filling my lung with the misty air. I was not just confused. I felt that my thoughts and the noises around me were all jumbled and I was working very hard not to let it show.

"You really don't seem to be from around here," the pear spoke again. "First. You are speaking to one of the most venerable members in AohhoA." He cleared his throat and pronounced, "Bulkee, the name is. And I am the guard of this entire forest." He swung his arms and repeated. "The honorably reproductive AkxieMoreRun Forest!" His body arched back, he cracked open his eyes slightly as if waiting for something.

"The Honorably Reproductive AkxieMoreFun Forest, you said?" I asked, trying to stay calm.

"MoreRun! The Honorably Reproductive AkxieMoreRun Forest!" He said, his eyelids flapping. He was evidently fretful at my misnaming his forest. He shut his eyes and left a frown on his face. "The name of the forest is 'AkxieMoreRun Forest', without the 'Honorably Reproductive' part." He finished the sentence in one single breath. Then letting out a long sigh he asked, "And who are you?"

"Alexandra Sasha Ears." I replied, stating my full name. Then I added, "I go by Sasha, which is also short for Alexan..."

"Your last name is Ears?" Bulkee cut me off. "You sure can hear well." He leaned forward and studied me. "Unpolished features. But quite exquisite," He said. His glare and crude comments had my face turned hot. I rubbed my thumbs together behind my back, so he wouldn't see my displeasure. And I held his gaze. We stood looking at each other in silence till he spoke again, "You sure are not from AohhoA Land."

"What is this AohhoA Land place anyway?" I asked. I didn't meant to but I probably sabotaged the name as I could tell by the look of disapproval on his face.

"First of all, it is pronounced 'Ah-Oh-Ah'," he corrected me. "And let me tell you. AohhoA is a fascinating kingdom of timelessness. It has a rich history. A long one too. But I will make it short." He said in a hushed voice, "That is, if you care to hear it."

"Of course." I answered right away. I wouldn't want to lose any the opportunity to making sense of this situation. The narration of the red pear was far from brief. For what I thought was about fifteen minutes, he gave me a detailed account on the origination of the place.

I learned that it all started when a group of settlers arrived at a land of abundance called Stratum Wye and they built on it a kingdom that was now called AohhoA. Bulkee addressed the settlers as "the founding fathers". Initially the founding fathers cohabited with the natives. They managed to be self-sufficient, they shared resources, and together they governed the kingdom. It was before the concept of time was eliminated and everyone lived in peace.

Peace, until a clan of the dwellers called Ashendrons discovered a precious metal called Mocirium. It released energy that could be used to enter regions beyond AohhoA which the red pear referred to as "alternative realities". With the Mocirium the Ashendrons planned to construct a tunnel that granted them access to the external domains. It would cost more than sixty thousand tons of the metal to fuel the course, so the Ashendrons started mining. Their project, however, received widespread protests from the rest of the kingdom because the mining process destroyed their sources of livelihood, and the residents feared that the tunnel would lead to instability and ultimately destruction of Stratum Wye.

To muzzle the dissent, the Ashendrons began operating underground. Without much activity in the open, the demonstrations dissolved and the construction went on discreetly. When the passageway was finally completed, however, the Ashendrons flaunted it to the rest of the kingdom. And from that point things deteriorated drastically, because once they gained entry to some of the alternative realities, the Ashendrons grew obsessed with things that they discovered. And they were hungry for more. Additional metals. Access to newer realities. And superior possessions. Back in Stratum Wye they demanded supplies to fortify the tunnel, and they forced their way to attain them. Clashes between the Ashendrons and the rest broke out and quickly turned into bloodsheds. By the time the founding fathers formed defense forces and stepped in, thousands had died at the hands of the Ashendrons.

The battle went on with the Ashendrons clearly dominating because they had more advanced and powerful arsenal. And the atrocities lasted through a very cold winter until one of the governors named Yeelong discovered that the Ashendrons were applying a highly addictive substance to boost their vigor. The substance was called Taurinegy and it was derived from the leaves of a plant that the Ashendrons had extracted from one of the realities and had been growing inside a heavily fenced meadow. Governor Yeelong devised a plan, and led a team of five and they infiltrated the field. They wiped out all of the plants by torching the meadow and burning down everything on it. Seeing their stocks went up in flames and reduced to ashes, the Ashendrons were astounded and they soon went into impairment. The founding fathers seized the opportunity and launched an attack. They wiped out the Ashendrons and forced them into a region called Stratum Twattence, or Twatt for short, which was a few hundred thousand miles beneath the seabed.

Governor Yeelong, however, was scorched to a crisp during the raid. When he was alive, he often spoke of a philosophy called Vottism that focused on the idea of timelessness. The founding fathers interpreted his ontology as an advocacy to eliminate time to prevent change or deterioration. So to honor Governor Yeelong and his sacrifice, the founding fathers vowed to reshape the kingdom of AohhoA the way he had envisioned. After a long process, they succeeded in doing so and made AohhoA the land of the timelessness.

"To preserve peace in repeating cycles of the status quo. That was the idea." Bulkee said, drawing a conclusion to his narration.

I had been captivated by his talk, like I was listening to a story of fantasy. And I stayed relatively poised. But the fright of what it all meant kicked in when he finished. How did I get involved in this place? I still had no clue as to why I had somehow entered into this mind-boggling tale. I closed my lids and shook my head hard trying to make some sense out of it.

"So how did you get here?" Bulkee asked, speaking out the question on my mind.

How did I get here? Pieces of memories started to flow together, conjugating to recreate the moment, when I was ready to leave for a road trip with my family. I began recounting my inexplicable experience to Bulkee a place crowded with residential structures that bore much resemblance to bread loaves.

"Where are we?" I asked Bulkee.

"A pocket of bread!" He announced.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The thought of bread invoked a loud growl from my stomach.

"We should get some food." Bulkee announced and went ahead of me. Hands behind his back and his pear belly jiggled from left to right, he kept his balance while standing on nothing.

"You are flying." I whispered. And I fastened my pace to catch up to him. But I was quickly prodded upward by a strong surge of air that blew from the ground. I was driven almost off the road.

Bulkee turned around and remained poised in midair. He pointed to the area underneath him, "This place is special. There is cool air shooting up from the ground. It is so dense that it elevates you, when it rises. You see, I am just walking on air, not flying."

I was quick to absorb his words and understand the idea of being lifted up by wind. It would be like floating in a swimming pool. I figured. But I was curious. "What happens when you rise up so high that you can't return to the ground?" I asked.

"No. No. No." He put up his left hand before me, his index finger waved like a dog's waggling tail. "That shall not happen. Around you, you might not see the air with your naked eyes. But picture an invisible dome covering this place like a round basket placed upside down. This dome is made up of unbearably hot air." An image of a scorching dome etched in my head. And he continued, "The dome is actually emitting heat to warm up the cool air. The more elevated the air is, the hotter it gets. And the hotter it is, the less dense it becomes." He stopped abruptly and asked, "When the air becomes so sparse, it will no longer be able to support you. And then you will what?"

"I will fall." I answered without hesitation.

"Precisely. The air isn't compressed enough to carry anybody when it reaches high temperature." His eyebrows lifted up. "So no one can ever fly out of the invisible dome." He spitted out the sentence word by word as if emphasizing the authenticity it carried.

"But if no one can ever fly out, how did we get in?" I asked again.

"Partly because we traveled through water and partly because," he paused and revealed a rare grin of mischievousness, "I used my Imajigo trade, Bionic, and created a MindShape. A glider for a traveling device." He said.

_Oh really?_ I darted a glance at him over my right shoulder. I was not buying the whole Imajigo thing, because even though he seemed well-informed and he did lead me out of the forest, I had a feeling that he was keeping something from me. And I couldn't figure out what it was. I just reminded myself to take his words with a grain of salt, because traveling in such an outlandish place, I had to stay vigilant.

As if detecting my disbelief, Bulkee put up his wagging index finger again. Like a judge dismissing a case he said, "The understanding will arrive on its own. But for now you can try 'flying' with this dense air."

_Flying? That's absurd?_ I thought. But despite the initial reaction of skepticism I was tempted. _Maybe I can do it. _I thought again. More than once I had entertained with the idea of moving freely and being unrestricted by any boundary. Riding the wind would be liberating, wouldn't it? I decided to take a shot at it. I leaped forward. But to my dismay, my efforts quickly resulted in my wobbling back down. I must have looked ridiculous.

"You are too heavy." Bulkee said flatly.

At this point, I was sure that he had tricked me just to poke fun at me. At my height of five feet and seven inches I was slim, weighing only one hundred and twenty eight pounds. I was, for lack of a better term, a lanky figure. But having lived my whole life with a strikingly alien appearance, I certainly had my fair share of unwanted glances and remarks growing up. That also meant that I had taught myself a few tricks to deflect them. Holding my tongue. Looking away to pretend that I didn't notice. Plucking the loose ends on my shirt to hide my displeasure. _Pick your battles._ I would say to myself and not let anyone provoke me. But now catching someone say that I was "too heavy", I caught just a slight sense of anxiousness creeping into me.

Perhaps reading the sullenness on my face, Bulkee added, "Not you. It's your thoughts that are weighing you down. You have way too many in your head and they are too heavy for you."

His clarification lessened some of my discomfort. And he had a point. So I asked, "How do I get rid of them?"

"Clear your mind." He advised.

But it was not as easy as it sounded. I became aware that certain thoughts, like concerns about the consequences and hazards of actually flying had found their way entering into my head. The more I tried to force them out, the more I mulled over them. And these thoughts continued to surface, despite all my efforts to sweep them out. Sometimes it was just difficult for me be at ease with myself when I got overwhelmed with qualms. In school, those who didn't know me might say that I was reserved or maybe even distant and standoffish. They just didn't understand. I kept to myself because I wanted to deal with my scruples in private.

At my failed attempt to put my mind at ease, I strolled beside Bulkee in silence and I redirected my attention to our surroundings.

The road on which we walked looked like a milky paste. There was no sight of inhabitants, just small cottages appearing along the path, popping into the view as if in a blink of eye fresh bread loaves had one by one turned up from chunks of dough. Despite their unvarying doughy quality, the residential structures were of different sizes and shapes. They stood neatly abreast along the street as if someone had placed the fresh loaves on a tray with painstaking precision. Nevertheless there was no one moving in or out of the villa.

"Where exactly are we going?" I asked.

"Open your nostrils. Follow what fills your nose and suits your stomach." Bulkee answered, but not addressing my question directly. He moved with his hands behind his back. And his body swayed as if he was enthralled by the air he inhaled.

I found his moves quite comical. I wrapped my arms behind my back, imitating him as I took a deep breath. The muscles around the rims of my nostrils flexed. The air indeed smelt pleasant—the scent of a hearty lunch. Aromas of buttery bread, fried-bacon and oven-baked potatoes filled my lung. My stomach growled as if in reaction to the whiff.

I noticed that the scent trailed over from a large house ahead of us at the end of the road, just about a hundred yards away. The mansion towered over the rest of the cottages alongside of the street. Its exterior appeared crunchy with a fluffy texture similar to bread crumbs. Bulkee and I walked toward it.

But just when we were about fifty feet away, a series of loud thud came through like someone had fired multiple cannon balls. The pounding sounded ubiquitous, piercing from all directions and encircling us right outside the mansion. The tumult grew louder with each ring, shaking everything along its invisible path as the noise traveled. I stood unmoved for the first eight thuds. I could feel the vibration with each amplified blow. At the ninth ring, it felt like the sound had actually brushed by me. And I tumbled. At the tenth ring I was trembling and I could barely stand on the ground. At the eleventh ring, I thought that the noise had tossed me up in the air. And the giant house ahead us juddered, taken by the velocity of the uproar.

I glanced over. _Someone's by the mansion!_ I discovered a figure appearing at the door as if in a hurry to close it. Then the street shook like a sinuous snake. And I screamed.

My outcry seemed to have caught the attention of the figure at the entrance. It waved at us and shouted, "Hurry! Get in before…"

The sentence broke off right at the twelfth ring when a clamor burst out from the roof of the manor. It sounded like a set of explosives had detonated. Along with the bang, small chunks of rocks ejected out from the chimney. They showered down and flew everywhere. They were warm and moist.

"Run!" Bulkee shouted. He and I darted toward the house. The distance of less than twenty steps suddenly seemed so long when we had to dodge and maneuver through the flying rocks. The chunks bounced around. A couple of them shoot over my head just when we dashed inside the house. I panted and caught a rushing aroma, as I hurried to close the door behind me. And when I turned around, I gasped for more air.

Facing me were two large eggs with humanly features. They were about half of my height with tiny wings on the side. They gazed up at us with a look of concern. They seemed just as shocked as me.

The manor continued trembling while the ceiling convulsed like it was still spitting stuff out. We looked at one another with a slightly lowered jaw for what seemed like a minute to me, until finally Bulkee broke the ice. "We are from the AkxieMoreRun Forest, and just what is happening right now?" He asked.

His question certainly worked to ease the tension because one of the eggs responded with relief, "Oh, dear, we have guests from some forest just in time for lunch!" The egg had on him a yellow apron with matching glove mittens over his wings. He talked as he threw his wings in the air. His finger-like feathers danced beneath the mittens.

The other egg, wearing a chef hat and a matching suit, smiled. "Come on over." She said and joined her partner in his dance. They appeared much more interested in their celebration than about providing us an explanation. With a series of roaring laughter, they motioned, "Into the kitchen you two. You must be hungry from what just happened."

Bulkee strode in and I walked closely behind him. The house was spacious and spectacular with a chimney so tall that from where I stood the top part of it looked like a pin needle. I noticed that in place of a fireplace at the bottom of the chimney, there was an oven. In the kitchen a magnificent teapot kettle hung from the ceiling. It gave off bubbling noises indicating that something was boiling inside. Draping down from the teapot was a shiny plate attached to the spout by four beaded strings. Surrounding the teapot were what I could only assume as cheese balls threaded together in cords that hung across the room from every direction of the house. Below the teapot was an enormous round wooden table. On the table, there were piles after piles of delightful things looking like what would be lunch.

The commotions outside diminished. But the rooms were still shaking from the effects of the eruption. Unfretted by the tremor, the eggs flew around the table swiftly while setting up plates and utensils before us.

The hospitality of the eggs was apparent to say the least. Although feeling appreciative, I fidgeted with distress as I suddenly remembered the story of Hansel and Gretel. I recalled the child-devouring witch, who lived in the forest and lured the two children with her house of candies. The thought of the story brought me to a stop. Despite the risk of being rude, I ventured, "Thank you for taking us in. But I am a stranger to you and I don't quite feel comfortable just intruding like this."

The eggs turned around abruptly. They glanced at each other and then they both burst into incessant laughter. Chuckling hard, the one with the chef hat said, "You are afraid not because _you_ are a stranger to us, but because _we_ are strangers to you. Isn't that so?"

I felt a burning sensation all around my cheeks.

But the egg said kindly, "Well. You can call me Mrs. Lethan," and pointing to the egg in apron she said, "And him Mr. Lethan."

"Now we are no longer strangers to you." Mr. Lethan said and urged us, "Come on over and we will talk and get to know each other over the meal."

Bulkee shrugged and flew over to the table. The kitchen table had a full display of treats some of which I had never seen before.

"The Condensed Pockets," said Mr. Lethan as he picked up a big puffy square, "They are the yeast-based pastries with fillings. A bite into it brings out the most delicious flavors!" He beamed, "Each one is a mystery with stuffing of either blueberry cream, or rosemary, or poppy seed, or cream cheese. Oh, you name it." He continued, nodding at another plate that was filled with round and thin pieces of something that resembled flat bread. "This one is called Flatty Out. You see a hole in the middle? That's where you slide your head through. And then you just leave it around your neck." He explained, while his acicular head poked at the Flatty Out. After he wiggled through, he left the giant piece wrapped around his neck right above his apron, "Now you can bite into it!" I watched him, as he munched and twisted and turned inside the Flatty Out. "The dough has enough elasticity that it'd just be hanging round your neck!" He explained.

Intrigued by the demonstration I stepped up and reached into a plate right in front of me. On it there were more than a dozen of galette-like bakeries with folded crusty edges. "Jojos," Mr. Lethan called them.

I took one out of the plate and I studied it. The Jojo curved slightly upward rendering the shape of a cup. The crater was filled by a light yellow substance that appeared to be liquid. With the tip of my finger I dapped at it gently and discovered that it was gello-like. At last I took a small bite, and immediately my mouth was filled with a sweet and creamy paste that reminded me of strawberries dipped in cheese fondue. _Gosh, this is so good. _I thought.

Soon Bulkee and I were trying all of the hearty pastries. Meanwhile our hosts busied themselves around the kitchen. Mrs. Lethan brought out four petty cups. She adjusted her chef hat and flew up to the shiny plate that hung below the giant teapot. There was a small silvery ball attached to the center of the plate. Surrounding the ball along the rim of the plate, there were four matching-colored hooks. She placed the tiny cups onto the plate and the secured each of them with one silver hook.

Then leveling herself right next to the kettle, Mrs. Lethan grabbed the teapot's spout and in a swift she pulled it downwardly.

All at once, from the nozzle a milky substance splurged out, splashing onto the silver ball located in the middle of the plate. "Milk tea." She announced.

As soon as it hit the silver ball, the stream split into four strands that bounced off into different directions. And to my amazement, the volleys of tea landed precisely onto the four cups that were placed on the plate. Just as the cups were filled to the top, Mrs. Lethan let go of the kettle's spout. The splash ceased and steams rose and a luscious aura filled the room.

"Ah ha, here it is. Freshly brewed and ready to be served!" Mr. Lethan beamed. He tapped the kitchen table and then jumped onto it. Motioning to Bulkee and me, he called out, "Come and get your tea. Climb up!"

Bulkee flew over to the table and I clambered onto it. The shiny plate was just a few inches above our heads. Mrs. Lethan descended from the teapot carrying a small silver stick. She moved to stand directly below one of the miniature tea cups. And she asked us to do the same, each choosing a cup to stay beneath.

After we all took a spot, Mrs. Lethan lifted up the silver stick and poked the plate right in the middle. "Enjoy your tea. Drink now!" She hailed.

Upon the touch of the wand, the center of the plate bent upward. And all of the four cups tilted outwardly, pouring out the refreshment.

It was happening so fast that I parted my lips instinctively. The tea streamed down into my mouth without any overspill. It was just enough for a mouthful.

_Delicious!_ I was amazed. It tasted like nothing I had ever experienced before.

"Absolutely the most delightful tea I've ever had!" Mr. Lethan declared as if it, too, was his first time trying the beverage.

"Certainly." Bulkee said with a nod, wiping his mouth with the corner of a napkin. "Now will you tell us what's happening?" He raised his question again.

"Oh, yes, yes." The eggs replied simultaneously.

The downpour outside seemed to be over but the commotion persisted.

"This is really just a routine here." Mrs. Lethan said.

I listened and enjoyed two pieces of the moist and golden biscuits. I chewed while the flavors lingered in my mouth.

Mrs. Lethan rose up to the teapot again and Mr. Lethan carried on the explanation, "At the start of every cycle we prepare the dough. And we bake the bread. Once the baking is done, we send the loaves outside and distribute them through the chimney."

I realized that what I mistakenly thought as rocks earlier were actually bread loaves. "Distribute them to whom?" I asked, swallowing.

"To the entire pocket!" He said proudly.

"Huh?" I shook my head, uncomprehending.

"We are the sole supplier of bread loaves!" Mrs. Lethan answered from above. She pulled the spout of the kettle. The tea poured down onto the silver ball. It split into four valleys which then coursed into the cups. "It's customary that the loaves are dispensed right when the sun reaches its climax." She came down to stand next to me. "The distribution causes an explosion so the residents all wait inside their houses." She said. "You folks were caught right in it!"

I began to understand why I did not see anyone out on the street earlier.

"Now!" Mrs. Lethan suddenly signaled. She hit the silver plate with the rod.

We parted our lips and caught a mouthful of the tea. A new savor with a touch of vanilla. "This tastes great. And the lunch is delicious. Much needed." I grinned as I drank.

"You were probably exhausted from traveling," Mrs. Lethan smiled and she rose up to the teapot again.

"And you came from a faraway place, a forest or something?" Mr. Lethan inquired, placing another Flatty Out around his neck.

"Yes. The honorably reproductive AkxieMoreRun Forest." Bulkee replied clearing his throat, "And I am Bulkee, the great guard of the honorably reproductive AkxieMoreRun Forest."

Before I was about to tell them my story, Mrs. Lethan poked the silver plate again, "Now." She called out.

Everyone gulped. Another sweet flavor filled my mouth.

"And where are you going?" Mr. Lethan asked while he munched.

"To greet the Prince of Ahohoa Land. I have a request to present." Bulkee replied, hands twirling in the air as he utter the word "Prince".

"Me too." I said, fast enough before the stick prodded the plate.

"Drink!" Mrs. Lethan announced.

All gulped.

Another pleasant flavor swirled, satiating my taste buds.

"Wonderful!" Mr. Lethan was content.

"Indeed." Bulkee was pleased.

And I felt that my stomach expanded.

We went on with the drinking, eating and intermittent chatting. After the fifth dispatch I was so full that I thought that I could harbor a ship with the amount of tea I had drunk. Finally I excused myself and dismounted from the table.

While climbing down, I turned to the window. "What's going on outside?" I asked. Bulkee and our hosts looked over. The bread loaves trailed away from the mansion and to different directions they moved. They glided in neat lines like integral parts of a moving train, and in such an orderly fashion that it appeared as though they had a will of their own. And they took up the entire city. Numerous of them spread all over the streets. Some even marched along roofs of the villas.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Look at that!" I called out as I gazed up at a long track of loaves that wrapped around the top of one cottage. There were spherical things beneath the train.

"They are the residents of the city. They are like me." Mr. Lethan said.

I squinted till I made clear of the creatures underneath the moving loaves. Indeed, they looked like the Lethans, some with chef hats and matching suits and some with mittens and aprons. I realized that the bread loaves were not moving on their own. It was the eggs who carried them. The eggs bent sideways and advanced onto the streets with the loaves on their backs.

"What are they doing with the bread?" I asked.

"They are bringing them back home to make meals. And if there are any leftovers they will use them to revamp their houses." Mrs. Lethan explained, adjusting her chef hat. She placed her left wing on her stomach and a look of content appeared on her face.

"These cottages are made out of bread loaves." Bulkee commented.

"Yes. You are correct!" Mrs. Lethan said.

"Let's go out and get some fresh air." Mr. Lethan flew pass me and opened the window. Working his tiny wings he throbbed himself through the frame. A small piece of the Flatty Out still dangled above his apron. And Bulkee and Mrs. Lethan followed him.

I jumped down from the table and I pranced over. But the window was set high above the floor. Too high. The tips of my fingers could barely reach its lower beam. My friends had gone out of sight. A tinge of impulse to call out to them came over me briefly. But calling for help wasn't exactly my thing. I swallowed the urge back down.

I ran to the door and pushed hard on it. But it stayed unyielding. My eyes searched along the panel only to uncover a bolt that was placed high up the wall. It was out of my reach. I dashed back into the kitchen. I didn't like the feeling of being trapped. I paced back and forth till I caught a few large logs by the fireplace. I examined my discovery as I stepped closer to the pile. The logs weren't chopped into firewood yet. And I picked up one out of the stack. My instinct told me that I got a viable option. I gauged the distance between the window and the kitchen table. The log in my hands was long and narrow but not too heavy. _Perfect._ I thought.

I dragged the piece to the window and I put it straight up against the frame. Then I lifted up one end from the floor and carried it with me in both arms. After I walked around to the kitchen table, I leaned against it and leveraged its support on my back. I secured my footing, and I raised the entire log onto the table, making a single-plank bridge that linked from the kitchen counter to the window. I ran back and forth to check and make sure that each end of the log was secured, and that I had sent about five inches of it out through the window. Then I climbed onto the table.

At this point, it was all too familiar. A sense of relief rushed up to me. I had been taking gymnastic lessons since I was five years old. My specialty was in rhythmic gymnastics but I had done enough practice with the balance beam. Even though this log was sloped upward and it was not padded nor covered in suede, I knew that I would do just fine.

I took off my sneakers and rolled off my socks and slipped them into my sneakers. I held one shoe in each hand while extending my arms to the side. _Take a deep breath._ I said to myself. And I stepped onto the log. I wasn't the best gymnast in my class but I was a meticulous one. I began dabbing the wood with one foot in front of the other. And I nudged forward without much sway, at least not one that could cause a fall or an injury. Once I traveled through the widow to the outside, I glided down to the lawn.

The bread trains had spread further away from the mansion. I was able to spot out Bulkee and Mrs. Lethan. Once I had my socks and shoes back on, I jogged up to them.

Mr. Lethan, however, was far ahead of everyone. He tumbled around the tops of the bread trains, bouncing from one to another while greeting the eggs underneath them. The piece of Flatty Out left on his neck wiggled freely.

I ran below Bulkee and Mrs. Lethan, stepping on the empty spaces in between the trains while occasionally skipping over them.

After a while Bulkee came to a yield, "I think we've lost track of Mr. Lethen." He said.

"He's just wandered off somewhere again." Mrs. Lethan said evenly, expressing no surprise to the disappearance. "I am sure he'd be back soon." Apparently she was quite used to his absentmindedness.

We stood there and watched. The bread trains started to break apart. The eggs beneath them dismounted the loaves and carried them into their perspective homes. Then from the chimneys of the cottages, smokes rose.

While some eggs went inside and probably busied themselves around the stoves to prepare a meal, others emerged atop the roofs. Mrs. Lethan explained to us that they were to repair any damage caused by the explosion.

I saw a group of eggs moving along the slightly curved dome of one house before us. They formed a line from the window to the rooftop. The egg nearest to the window handed a bread loaf to the next egg, who then brought it to the following receiver waiting in line. As such the loaf was passed along all the way to the top. To my amazement, the last egg catching the loaf started to nibble on it. It turned the doughy pastry in different angles while working at it. Mrs. Lethan told me that the egg was tailoring the square piece into a shape that would fit into the damaged area. The egg modified it by consuming the undesirable parts. Occasionally a few other eggs helped devouring excess crumbs. At last they placed the final product down onto the roof.

"I hope you've enjoyed what you see. Why don't we head back and have some snacks?" Mrs. Lethan turned around and suggested.

"Thank you. But we should get going." Bulkee politely declined her offer on behalf of both of us.

Mrs. Lethan looked disappointed upon hearing it but she said to us caringly, "I hope at least you guys had enough to be on the road again."

"Yes. More than enough!" I said. "How can I repay you for your kindness?"

"My goodness, my guests are asking to repay me." She shook her chef hat back and forth. "That is really unheard of."

I wondered if I detected a sense of sarcasm, but Mrs. Lethan seemed genuinely amazed.

"I've always been the one to provide and I've never heard of such a thing as being 'repaid'." She laughed. "Everyone expects me to make bread and share the loaves afterwards. That's the tradition. Just how things are here."

I found it interesting that Mrs. Lethan did her baking as a duty and expected no return. "Can I help you with anything then? Perhaps you would make an exception?" I asked.

"As you can see we are quite self-sufficient here. We are in the pocket of Origination, where it all starts." She winked at me, "But now you mentioned it. There might be something that you can help me with."

"Do tell me." I insisted.

However, Mrs. Lethan paused and thought hard without continuing. And then she sighed, "Oh, dear. I can't recall what it is! With our daily routines I couldn't even remember what I did just a meal ago." With a perplexed smile she cried, "Right now I would really hope for a good memory!"

"Have mine if you'd like." I raised my shoulders feeling a bit awkward. I realized that I really didn't have much to offer. In this foreign place I had no family, no status, and certainly no money. _Yeah, memory is about all that I have right now._ I thought. _And I'd give it up without thinking twice._ I knew that for a fact.

As a girl entering high school, I was so ready to shed off some history, along with the awkward and lanky version of myself. _Let them fade._ I wished. It wasn't that I felt depressed or anything. In school I had my small circle of friends with whom I afforded an intimate social circle. But I'd rather lose myself sometimes, like somewhere in the intensity of gymnastic trainings. So I would just forget about everything else. I pursed my lips together into a smile. "I would love it if you want to keep my memory." I said.

"I shall accept it." Mrs. Lethan chuckled and patted me on the back. "And I will keep it in a safe place till you want it back." She assured me.

Whether memories could truly be given and stored remained uncertain. But I was glad to at least have something to offer.

"Now I remember what I meant to ask of you." Mrs. Lethan said, as if having had an epiphany, "Just one cycle ago after a bread shower, we discovered a book right outside our house. Well, it looked like a book but when I flipped it open, the pages had nothing written on them except for one line."

"What did it say?" Bulkee interjected.

"'The AohhoA Seekers of the Enlightened shall present it to the Sovereign'. That was the message. But the words disappeared right after I read them. How strange!"

"What was on the cover of the book?" Bulkee asked again. I sensed the tension in his voice.

"A metal of some sort, with three sticks. I can't recall exactly." Mrs. Lethan responded.

Bulkee fell into a state of pensiveness.

"The 'Sovereign' must be the Prince. Aren't you two going to greet him?" She looked to me, "If you are the Enlightened Seeker, please, bring the book to him. I am not the right keeper of it."

"I am an Enlightened Seeker." Bulkee said and snapped out of his thoughts. He then urged Mrs. Lethan to show him the book.

"It's in the house." She said. The three of us turned around and hurried back. She flew in through the window and opened the door for us. "Let me fetch the book." She said and disappeared behind the kitchen door. When she reappeared, she had with her a large brown book. It was bounded by leather and on the cover a thin piece of circular-shaped metal was placed in the middle. She put the giant book down on the kitchen table.

"This book!" Bulkee exclaimed upon the sight of it, his voice cracking, "I suspect it is..."

"What is it?" I whispered. We all gathered around it.

"It's the legendary TimeBook." He grew livid. "It is said that this book records the history of AohhoA since the kingdom's birth. It is an integral part of AohhoA's connection to the alternative realities! But no one knows if it actually exists. How remarkable that it is found here!"

"The book appeared after one bread explosion just a cycle ago." Mrs. Lethan said. "It was like someone had dropped it from the sky. But I don't know who would have brought it here because our city is very isolated. So much so that even the Timekeepers don't come through."

I moved close to steal a look. The metal disc on the cover had scales carved on it. The design reminded me of a lock for a safety box.

A ring, made of three same-sized locknuts layered together, was wedged in the slightly dented part in the center of the disc. Rows of delicate metal teeth jutted out from the rims of each piece. They bent towards each other in a way that created a hollow airway through which a very fine metal ball was placed. One metal ball was set in the gap of each locknut. The three minuscule balls were just big enough to fit inside the ring but small enough to travel around in it. Connected to each ball was a metal pin. All three pins had different length that together looked like the hands of a clock.

"Let's see what's inside the book," Bulkee reached for it. But it did not open at his first attempt. So he played around with the pins. He lined up all three of them and made them point south. When he tried again, the cover shifted and the book was ajar.

Yet inside there were no writings and the blank paper looked fresh with a tint of light brown. Then words appeared. I read the first page. It accounted the origination of the kingdom. The settlers, Stratum Wye, the Ashendrons, just like what Bulkee had said.

Bulkee turned the pages and scanned the paragraphs if looking for something. And I read along, trying to taking in as much as I could.

The titles from the passages indicated that the book recorded the evolution of AohhoA, from the settlement to the removal of time. I was only browsing through so I just got the gist of it. I read a part about how the founding fathers decided on the timeless nature of AohhoA. Their interpretation of Governor Yee Long's Dottism was centered on three concepts – Ego, Tradition, and Eternity. "Ego" was an emphasis on self-reliance. The founding fathers called the regions within Stratum Wye "Pockets", and they intended for each Pocket to be self-sufficient and relatively isolated from one another, so that no Aohhoaian would be tempted to seek access to pockets beyond their own or to the alternative realities. "Tradition" was about a set of values and rules that Aohhoaians must follow to live in peace. There were mostly customs that everyone complied without questions. I recalled that both Bulkee and Mrs. Lethan had responded to my inquiries by referring to my observed matters as traditions. And "Eternity" focused on living in repeated cycles that centered on autonomic existence. The cycles were guided by the customs and were intended to prevent change. All three concepts— Ego, Tradition, and Eternity— were devised in the name of preserving the status quo.

There was also a paragraph in the book that mentioned the exploration of the alternative realities. Since their seizing of the Apogee Course, the founding fathers decided to access it for solutions to eradicate time. Fearing for the repeat of what happened to the Ashendrons, they nominated only one individual to go on voyages. The designated one had to follow a strict guideline and was only allowed to acquire items essential to the solution. One of the designations described in the book caught my attention, because its attributes seemed to match the world that I was familiar with. They called it "Endulth". From such a place the voyager was said to have learned traits such as languages and arts and that he had introduced them to the Aohhoaians. Once successful at retrieving the solution, the voyager was promised to be the King. But the idea was that if a King was ever overpowered by greed, the founding fathers could join forces to annihilate him.

There was another part in the TimeBook that gave details to the reshaping of the kingdom. Like Bulkee had told me, AohhoA was initially built on Stratum Wye which was a vast terrain where most inhabitants resided. The book explained that Stratum Wye floated above a large body of water called the Endless Sea. Thousands of layers beneath the sea floor was the other tier, Stratum Twattence, the untouchable precinct where the founding fathers kept the Ashendrons. However, there was a third tier called Stratum Equis that was later created. It was the most prestigious tier to be occupied by the King and the Princes along with those who are designated to guard the status quo. Stratum Equis was not exactly a physical space. Rather it referred to the Floating Palace where the royalties resided, as well as the especial accesses granted to them for the purpose of maintaining peace.

Bulkee flipped to another page. I caught the caption "Imajigo". The paragraph following it was lengthy. But I took in the passage fervently. The writings described Imajigo as a connection between one's "cerebral ability for imaginings" to one's physical experience. Bulkee left the page open long enough for me to read through the whole passage. But I was not completely clear as to how the connection was made. What I found interesting, however, was that the book actually associated Imajigo to Endulth. _My world._ And it stated that the voyager introduced the concept of Imajigo to the Aohhoaians after he had discovered it in Endulth.

After I finished reading, Bulkee flipped the leaves again. He skimmed through the content page after page, until suddenly his hand jerked. He had found something. It was a new chapter with the title "the Legend of AohhoA Seekers of the Enlightened".

I took a deep breath and I read ahead. But the leaves following the caption were empty. I looked to Bulkee. His eyebrows locked into a knot. It was apparent that he was taken by the discovery. He began running his fingers along the pages and he flipped through the volume fast. And without warning all the words in every section of the book started to fade. Nothing visible was left.

Bulkee shot the book closed and motioned for everyone to wait. Then he realigned the pins on the cover and placed the volume with its back on the kitchen table. When he let go, the front over of the book came down slowly. Then the back covers. And then the leaves from both sides began falling gently, till the heart of the book was reached. The page bare still but very gradually it started to crinkle. And scribbles emerged as if someone was writing out letters one by one. When the squiggles ceased moving, I leaned over, hoping to read them. But the sentence was written in a language that I did not recognize.

"The message is intended only for its proper recipient." Bulkee said to me with an overtone of flaunting. After perusing the writing for a while he read it out loud, "Safeguard the Secret and seek the outlet that points to the sky where lights are visible while being seen through tunnel vision."

_What does that mean?_ I was lost.

"'Outlet' means 'exit'" Bulkee intercepted. "It's telling us that to exit the city we need to go upward." He spoke with certainty.

"What about 'tunnel vision'?" I asked.

Bulkee did not respond. He seemed to be pondering the same thing.

"Ah ha! That must be the chimney," exclaimed Mrs Lethan. "Only a chimney pipe would give you tunnel vision."

"Precisely." Bulkee remarked. "We should get going and deliver the TimeBook to the Sovereign-to-be!"

The idea of crawling through a dark and narrow warren did not appeal to me, not to mention having to creep upward.

"Let me prepare you the ride." Mrs. Lethan smiled and exchanged a quick glance with Bulkee. And she began to busy around the kitchen, mixing water and flour together.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Remember the air dome that I was telling you before?" Bulkee asked me instead.

"Yes."

"The book is directing us to go through it. And to do so, we have to get enough pressure to break the wind."

"But I thought you said that no one can ever fly out of the dome. It's hot." I said.

"According to the book we can. We'd need pressure to create the speed. Fast enough to break the wind with no harm. And the bread loaves can give us the pressure and make a rupture on the dome." He assured me.

"Yes, the loaves ejected from the chimney should give you just the right pressure," Mrs. Lethan grinned, "As long as I add in extra baking powder." Individual dough chunks started to take shape under her wings.

"We will fly up to the roof and wait on the chimney for our ride. Once the bread loaves are dispatched, they will take us with them." Bulkee opened the window and he was ready to go up.

"Wait!" just then I noticed that on the open page of the TimeBook, scribbles reappeared. The letters came to view fast.

This time the message was left for me, as the heading read "To Alexandra Sasha Ears,".


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Take 'O' out of the city." The note was short.

_What does that mean?_ Instinctively I looked to my friends. But Bulkee and Mrs. Lethan returned a blank stare. I gazed back at the book.

The letter "O" was placed right in the middle of the page. It appeared more prominently than the rest of the letters. I studied it carefully and my chest expanded with rising anticipation. _Something's different_. I noticed.

The letter "O" seemed to be growing, popping out from the page. I rubbed my eyes and saw that it was indeed broadening. It expanded upwardly and it swelled, becoming wider and bigger. It brushed aside the other letters which contracted before finally waning into the sheet. The "O" turned into a convex and stretched like a water drop seeping out on a piece of tissue. And the page dented inwardly as if reacting to the growing weight of the figure. The hollow emerged like a soft bed underneath the swelling, its edge surpassing the rims of the oval just enough to hold it in. Finally the transformation came to an end, leaving a perfectly curved ovoid fitted in the middle. To me the book now looked like an incurved case that secured a precious stone inside. A cool breeze came through the window and tossed strands of my hair.

"Whatever it is, it must be what the TimeBook wants you to take." Mrs. Lethan said.

I snapped out of my trance and examined the ovoid. My face almost came into contact with the warm surface of the bulge. The ivory-colored oval was flossy with a tint of rose red. I placed my index finger on it tracing its smooth arc. As its look had suggested, the ovoid felt silky like marble. I slid my hand under and lifted it out of the book, careful not to put any pressure on it. The smoothness of the ovoid had a calming effect on me and evoked a relaxing awareness. More strangely I caught a rising sense of familiarity, like I had known it long ago.

"It reminds me of something." Bulkee commented with hands on his chin, the small stud below his lips.

"I agree. It certainly looks familiar," concurred Mrs. Lethan. "But what is it exactly?"

While everyone hovered around the ovoid on my hand and wondered about its appearance, the book fizzled on the table, its leather cover tapped against the wood.

"Look! The TimeBook wants to tell us something." Mrs. Lethan pointed to the page, where words appeared along the edge of the dent.

I looked over and laughed. The page read, "The Egg of Promise."

"An egg. Of course it is!" I marveled and brought it to my cheek. "You want to meet the Prince too? I will take you with us." I said to the egg and placed it back in its case. And I turned the book cover to close the volume.

As Bulkee and I prepared for departure, Mrs. Lethan transported the dough and placed them in the oven. Then she took out a glass bottle and with it she flew up to the kettle. When she came down, the flask was filled to the top. Securing the cap, she handed the bottle to me, "Here, take this with you. The tea should save you from thirst." Gratefully I accepted the gift and put it in the pocket of my shorts.

After thanking our benignant host again, Bulkee and I went out of the mansion. I had taken with me a large flank of wood. I leaned it against the wall and used it as a ladder to climb up. Bulkee flew to the roof, taking the TimeBook with him. Carefully placing the thick book atop the tip of the chimney, he motioned for me to sit on it, "It will protect you from the heat of the bread loaves."

The TimeBook made a perfect fit for the opening. But when I mounted onto it, the thought of crushing the egg crossed my mind.

"Don't worry. It will be fine inside." Bulkee said with confidence, as if reading my worries.

I crossed my legs and sat down. With Bulkee on my lap, I clasped onto the edges of the book tightly. Through the pathway of the chimney I heard a holler, trailing closer and it sounded unyielding. Quickly followed was a rumbling that erupted from the bottom causing the bread house to shake. The vibration fired upward along the narrow tunnel and it went all the way to the TimeBook. Before I even had a chance to blink, I was in the air. And I was pushing through the downwardly pressing wind, against the invisible dome of the bread city.

After we had ascended to a certain altitude, the heat of the atmosphere swallowed us. Just when I thought that we had reached the point of unbearable, the book began to wobble as if being snatched by a strong force. I quavered. I could feel my hair being yanked, causing tingling along my scalp. But very quickly the tremor ebbed.

Our path followed an arch and we began to fall back down. At this point I knew that we had broken through the dome. The city was now behind us.

"How are we going to land?" I asked Bulkee. We were descending fast.

"Wait and see." He said.

I leaned back somewhat less at ease. Having Bulkee next to me was comforting.

But then out of nowhere I had a sharp sense that I was being watched. I was certain of having felt somebody observing me with eyes that pierced with intensity. I grew anxious and I looked around. Yet I was unable to locate the spectator. And all that I could find was a wide watercourse directly below us. _A river! Or is it? _

The current seemed mild but its consistency strike me as being odd. I glanced again and noticed that the flow was not as clear as what freshwater should be. It rendered a light yellow tinge with textures thick and dense. It was a river of something other than water. Before I realized it, we were only a few hundred feet above the copious course.

A heavy wind tousled up from down below and I heard ruffling noises. It was the bottom cover of the TimeBook dropping down. I could tell that the leaves of the volume turned rapidly like the fluttering wings of a bird. And I was taken by a series of shudders that resembled the pulsation of a car engine during acceleration. The ruffling of the pages slowed down the book and prevented us from plummeting into the current. Then with a thump the book closed and it landed evenly onto the river. After disembarking, we floated atop the current and drifted along the bank.

Bulkee lifted up one hand and dipped it into the river. With two fingers he snatched up something from the current. A yellowish white nugget of some sort. He brought it to close to his eyes and examined it. Then flicking his fingers he sent the stone straight into his mouth. I watched as his lips pursed, his brows furrowed and his cheeks scrunched up. Then his face relaxed and he said, "Sweet corn it is."

The nugget turned out to be a corn kernel. In fact the river was flooded with them and it smelled of immersing syrupiness, so much so that inhaling the scent of it seemed dangerous. Still, I had the urge to taste it just as Bulkee did. I reached into the river with one hand on the edge of the TimeBook, and I drilled in as deep as I could till the current swallowed my lower arm. When I drew it back, my palm was filled with the kernels, warm and fresh. I picked one up and placed it in my mouth. It melted right away and left an overly sweet aftertaste all over my tongue.

I let the savor linger and I browsed the view around me without focusing on anything in particular. The current moved slowly and idly. The scene alongside of the river appeared peaceful. There was nothing in sight besides seemingly edgeless corn fields with ears of corns growing tall and compacted. From far the conglomerate of fields looked like a large canvas smudged with yellow and green strokes. The serenity of the view, however, appeared deceiving as if a conspicuous plan had been made behind the tranquil fields. Again I felt that I was being watched. _But by somebody else?_

The gaze was different from my previous detection. This was more of a curious glance than the wicked stare. The observer seemed to be standing somewhere in the fields on the shore. I tried to stand up from the TimeBook to steal a look. _A flicker of some sort._ I saw. I thought that I had caught a glimpse of someone waving at me. But right then the book started to rock.

Beneath us the river jostled making the TimeBook sway. And we began moving very fast. Countless kernels roamed into waves, exposing a shift in its texture. I dipped my hand into the river again and I scooped. The kernels were no longer moist. Something had changed about them. They were dry. They had turned rounder. They had grown darker in shade. And they were hopping up and down in my palm. It hit me that the kernels moved not because of the waves but that they were bouncing on their own. It also became clear that the TimeBook might not withstand the reeling, as we started to slant to the side. No matter how firm it was, the book was not built to be a carrier.

"We need a boat for this." I said.

Bulkee saw the severity of the situation as well. "Let me try it." He said. And he sat down with his eyes closed. "I will use Bionic to make a MindShape." He told me. So I waited, giving his attempt a slight hope. But after a while nothing happened and he opened his eyes with a frustrated frown. "Too much movement." He complained, burying head in his hands.

I gazed ahead trying to focus and conceal my disappointment. But I heard Bulkee say "Why don't you do it with me?" He was squinting and he casted a very interesting look at me.

"Do what?" I asked.

"Close your eyes, and just think of a boat." He said. "It would help me create the MindShape."

I was unconvinced at how I could rally round. But I decided to cooperate. "I will take a jab at it." I replied.

With the river's rage, we were in a constant sway and visualizing a stable image of a boat was very difficult. I did my best though. I held my fists and I just silently repeated the word "boat" over and over again, till I could vaguely sketch one in my mind. I kept on with this strange chanting until I heard frizzling noises behind me. I opened my eyes and found myself inside a small wooden boat with a flat bottom and a sharp front. There were no benches so I was still atop the TimeBook. "You did it!" I cheered, applauding to Bulkee who stood on the edge of the boat.

Yet he did not respond or even turn around. He was spooning his little hands in and out of the river.

"What are you digging?" I asked.

"I am not digging." He murmured without looking up. "I am trying to get us out of this," he said solemnly.

"Out of what?" I asked again.

But I really did not have to wait for his response to know what was happening. The river had changed its course. It turned itself into a giant twirl and it hoarded the kernels into a big circle. Ahead of us a hole had formed in the middle. It looked bottomless and it was sucking in the air, the kernels, and anything else it could get a hold of. Meshed against each other, the kernels tumbled and roared pulling us close to the center.

Even more terrifying was that the river bank started to bend. Together with the ears of corns, it curved along the warp that formed just before my eyes. Everything enclosed upon us like a gigantic trap driving us into the core of the swirling waves. The sky darkened, murky and unsettling. It reminded me of the gloom right before a thunderstorm. It sent chills down my back.

Bulkee went on with the shoveling. And I hated to admit that his efforts were fruitless because we were being dragged down to the hollow fast. Without further questions I kneeled down beside him and I thrust my arms into the river. Together we peddled against the rising waves. Very slowly we began moving away from the collapsing center. But the kernels felt hotter and heavier each time I brushed them aside. The consistency of the river altered. It became as thick and sticky as glue. I let out a gust of air. My chest heaved up and down and my arms were sore.

Muscle soreness was something my body had gotten used to since I was little, owing to gymnastics class. Practice was not always this serious but it really intensified for me after one incident. I recalled that I was only about ten years old and I was just getting used to gripping the ribbon stick. My instructor told us to hold the stick at the end and allow it to lead the ribbon into patterns. She had cautioned against uneven movements and asked us to be steady. As a child I was flexible and I was very coordinated. But keeping balance was something I struggled with. So when I was put into a team of five for a school performance, I was having a hard time. The closing act of the show was designed for us to swirl the ribbons in horizontal rotation above our heads so that when we let go of the sticks, the ribbons would fall beautifully around us. In reality I had my rotation skewed which caused the ribbon to entangle with another girl's. When we tried unsnarling them, however, we missed our tempo and tripped over the girls next to us. Of course the audience still applauded and thought of the matter as something minor. But I was utterly embarrassed.

The episode had caused enough terror in me that I was determined to do everything and anything I could to avoid such a ruin again. My instructor said that practice was key if I wanted to get better at it. So I did just that. I kept with me a decorative ribbon that I found in my mother's closet and I used it to practice balancing. I swirled it when I was walking home after school, when was I was taking a stroll with my friends, and even when I was reading a book on my bed. I kept on with the self-discipline till my arms turned sore and then numb, and till I was sure that I would never fail at creating a perfectly balanced rotation above my head.

_But am I going to make it, right now? Ever go home again?_ Suddenly these doubts broke into my head and robbed me of my senses. I stared at the compulsion of the kernel river and began to think that I might never see my family again. The thoughts were sharp like needles jabbing at me and making me deflate like a leaking balloon. My arms gave in finally.

The corn kernels, smashed against one another, grew in quantity. Their temperature rose rapidly. They growled at the impact of the compression, the sound deep and muffled.

I heaved along the edge of the jolting boat and I tried to bring back my upbeat self. But it was no use. The forward motion of the boat came to an end. Once again we were being yanked into the hole.

"Why don't you eat some," Bulkee said, tilting his head at the kernels. "It might give you some energy." He thought that I was just exhausted.

I was full from earlier but his suggestion cut short my troubling thoughts. _It's either I swallow them or they swallow us. _I thought. I could not allow the kernels to drag us into the dark void.

I sat up and cupped my hands together. Reaching into the river I scooped a handful. The kernels were hot on my palms. I blew air to cool them and then buried my face in them. I slurped, chewed, and gulped. The kernels had gone hard their texture rough but still they were sweet to a sickening point. Soon I was feeling stuffed. Too stuffed. It was getting difficult to ingest but I was sure that the more I ate, the slower the river propelled us.

Then all of a sudden the compulsion subdued. The charging river ceased impelling and the waves of the dry corn kernels froze. The boat that cradled us stood motionlessly on the river.

"We stopped it!" I exclaimed and leaped to my feet.

But Bulkee was not so quick to celebrate. He remained alert. "Shhh," he hushed, his lids flapping rapidly without a sound. He straightened his back as if attempting to detect any subtle fuss in the air. Everything seemed tranquil but not exactly peaceful. The strange quietness gave away to a silenced warning. Affected by his vigilance, I tried to concentrate on the nuisance. And there! I heard the muffled sound again, labored and grave.

First it was distant and faint like a kitten's purring, like it was coming from the bottom of the river. But the noises grew rapidly both in volume and frequency, resembling series of coughs veiled by a damp cloth. Then the hardened corn kernels started to palpitate again. In an upward motion they went, and this time they were cleaved together, their once sealed hulls cracked, each kernel became a small pocket of explosives.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"They are popcorns!" I called out. Right then the waves turned colors, switching from light yellow to milky white. My voice was quickly cloaked by the detonating noises that pierced into my ears. Everywhere it sounded like firecrackers had gone off. The kernels were popping with so much force that I almost thought that the explosion was taking place inside my stomach. Small pieces of popcorn emerged. And the river congealed into a pool of white paste. It boiled with rising air bubbles, its heat came in waves and its uproar grew as if letting out its rage.

Added to this chaos was that our boat, Bulkee's MindShape, began to flicker like the wick of a candle being teased by the wind. It kept on disappearing and then reappearing. One moment I was sitting inside the boat, and the next moment I was just on the TimeBook and the boat was gone. The wavering went on and I grew anxious. It did not help when I turned to find Bulkee sweating with his whole body glistened in pearls of sweat the size of his eyes.

"What's going on?" I asked, my voice unsteady.

"The MindShape…It's not.." His sentence broke off and the boat just vanished. I sank down with the TimeBook. Bulkee shook his head, his eyebrows locked into a tight knot.

Without the support of the boat we were defenseless. The river charged at us and we were at its mercy. It tossed us up in the air, flinging the TimeBook a few hundred feet high. Quick in reaction, the book flipped opened and again its pages flared, catching the wind to decelerate and preventing a flat fall. But in midair, I lost my balance. I found myself sliding to the edge of book causing it to slope to the side. I was about to tumble off.

Bulkee dashed over before I could scream. He held onto the rim of the cover and positioned himself between me and the edge of the book, saving me from plunging.

Still, the thrusting wind was too strong. I could barely hook my arms around the far side of the book. My weight shifted. And unexpectedly the side of my hip smashed into Bulkee and bumped him off the book. He swung into the air and fell backward. And he kept on falling. Without the air from the bread city, he could not fly.

"Bulkee!" I let out a shriek, extending my hand. It was a futile attempt and I missed him.

"A true Enlightened Seeker shall meet his end without losing his mission." He burst out loud, his voice trailing away. Into the boiling river and the burning popcorns he dived.

My heart tightened like it was squeezing my chest. I was in pain seeing that I was losing him. I almost shut my eyes but then I caught a dark blur underneath him. It was slightly larger than the contour of his body, appearing almost like his shadow casted onto the river. And the fuzz grew in size and Bulkee's voice was suddenly near again.

Before I recognized it, he was suspending in the air. Even more unexpectedly, I, too, appended. Right away I felt something soft and feathery and I came to see that I was atop a bird-like creature. The giant beast had caught all of us including the TimeBook, just before we sunk into the raging current.

"We are saved!" Hands on my chest, I exhaled deeply. I glanced over to Bulkee. He was just as stunned. I wasn't sure why he risked for me earlier but I was grateful to have him back.

From behind, I could see that our savior had wide wing bars that were fully raised to catch the gale, its brilliant golden and black plumage smooth with a reddish tinge. There was a distinctive crest on its head. Only the slightest drafts were felt through the feathers of the spike.

We were flying low. And the bird was barely above the popcorn river. Below us small pieces of the popcorns had assembled into much larger ones. They looked to be hardened, their stiffened edges poking outwardly, turning the once moving current into a field of sizzling white stones. Yet the ground beneath still grunted, giving out its untamed growls. Steams from the popcorn conglomerates strewed all over the place, fogging up the view. The heat left a burning sensation on my face.

"The brave warrior that you just offered a hand to is named Bulkee." Clearing his throat, Bulkee introduced himself. "I am the protector of the honorably reproductive AkxieMoreRun Forest."

As if acknowledging him, the large bird tilted its head slightly to the side. I saw a golden raptorial rostrum with black face immediately around the beak. Our rescuer resembled a brown falcon.

"And how should we address a beast with a lightning speed and so knightly as yourself, sir?" Bulkee asked.

Before the giant falcon could respond, the ground below us juddered, shooting up a large boulder of popcorns. It flew to the left wing of the falcon and he swiftly gyrated sideways, avoiding the piece by a mere inch. But more stony chunks darted upward at us.

"Hold on tight now." The golden falcon said. They were the first words that I heard from him, his voice deep and firm. I gripped onto his shoulder, securing the TimeBook between my bended arms and my stomach, while shielding Bulkee who hovered beside my neck.

The golden falcon turned his body all the way to the right and extended his wings, making us almost perpendicular to the puddle below. He curved his right wing slightly near the tip to provide us support. He circled a few times through the shooting rocks, gaining momentum. Then he went straight up, like a speeding arrow breaking through the wind.

Against gravity, we headed into the sky, leaving the sweltering popcorns behind. Very quickly we escaped the blasting field and we began to slow down. The surrounding air turned cooler. Following a smooth circular path, the falcon brought his body parallel to the ground. I sat up and drew the book close to my chest, till the aviation halted and we came to a smooth landing.

"Impressive," Bulkee said, catching his breath, "The speed, the determination, and of course, the precision."

Again in response the falcon careened his head and gave a light nod. Meanwhile, he leaned sideways to let us glide off. Once we disembarked, I noticed that we were surrounded by hills that bore no plants. The knolls were covered by pebbles that did not resemble the ones that I had seen at home. They were small, round and crystal clear, emitting an intense shine.

"Ori," the golden falcon said. I turned to face him, puzzled. "You can call me 'Ori'." He held my gaze.

"Thank you," I replied gingerly. I wanted to ask how he had spotted us amidst the explosion. But the sharpness of his eyes seemed to have answered my unspoken question — it was as though he could pierce through darkness, could penetrate clouded minds, and could seize presence by merely casting one glance. As powerful as they appeared, his eyes were gentle and the way they lingered around my face reminded me of the gaze from someone who used to visit my dreams.

I know how ridiculous it sounded, but having dreams with a recurring theme was a common experience during my childhood. I had different ones, dreams and nightmares. The latter was likely another reason for my parents' apologetic manner toward me. After being awoken in the middle of the night, they would rush to my side, hoping to whisper words of comfort, but only to lose their voices to my wailing. I would be a wreck by the time they reached my bedside. I would be drenched in sweat, my heart pounding, my head reeling, my body shuddering uncontrollably while I screamed for images of the nightmares to stop flashing through my head.

But I would also wake to unstoppable laughter in the best dreams I'd get. In my earliest memories, these dreams started shortly after I turned five. And they were simple, mostly of me swerving in floating feathers that would send me flying through the clouds. When I grew older, the dreams evolved and the feathers transformed into dark and thick locks of a young man, whose features were obscured from my view, revealing only his eyes. I named my visitor Oneiroi, after I learned in school that in Greek mythology it was a term referring to spirits of dreams. In the recurring dreams, Oneiroi and I would stroll along strips of sparks on an open pasture that slowly merged into an inclined lake which flew upstream. We stepped on leaves that drifted above the lake, supporting us to reach a tree that rose from water. In shades we would meet each other's eyes, his appearing so translucent that it suggested no impurities behind his thoughts. We would stand still, till I felt a tingling inside me and the leaves that rained down on us turned into feathers. And again I began to swerve in them, this time embraced in the tenderness of his gaze.

"Ori. A familiar name," Bulkee said, bringing me back to reality, or the so-called "alternative reality". He paused, like he was searching in his memory. "It must be a name for a noble knight, like mine — Bulkee." He said.

"The guard of the AxieMoreRun Forest. I see." The falcon acknowledged him at last. He kept his wings widely extended and skimmed the surroundings as if shielding us from something. "I think you two are in a safer place now." He said and then pointed to the ground. "That book."

"That's the TimeBook," Bulkee answered immediately, "It is said to have recorded the history of AohhoA before the concept of time was eliminated. It's the key to understand and even connect with alternative realities."

Ori nodded, deep in thoughts. _Something's not right._ I noticed. The pins on the cover of the TimeBook all pointed to different directions. I picked up the book and it felt lighter than before. When I flipped open its leather cover, I gasped. Inside there was nothing except the blank pages with a hollow dent on a few of them. The egg was gone.

I pressed my hand onto the imprint. It was still warm and soft. "We've lost it." I was flustering. _How did it happen?_ I shut the book closed and I rummaged to line up the three pins on the cover. I opened the book again. Still, it was empty inside. I rubbed the heels of my hands against my temples till I felt pain. "We've lost the egg."

"In my revered opinion," Bulkee said, gazing at the ground. "The egg must have fallen out of the book when we landed onto the kernel river."

I remembered it. Bulkee was right. Before landing the book had cracked open its pages batted. And the egg must have popped out then. I cringed at the thought of it dropping into the current and tumbling along the burning popcorns. I almost burst into tears.

"It has happened and we can't change it." Bulkee said, "When there's something you can do, you do it. But when there's nothing you can do, just let it be."

I knew that he meant to comfort me but his words just sounded so cynical. I didn't know what to do next. And I just stood there. I began to feel my chest rising and my eyes filling up with tears.

My reaction caused Bulkee to jump. He climbed onto my left shoulder and he kept on tapping at my earlobe as a somewhat desperate endeavor to prevent me from crying. "The point is," he took a deep breath, "The egg is gone and there's nothing we can do. We have to let go."

"And perhaps it left the book for a reason," Ori said suddenly, his voice calm. "Maybe it wasn't an accident. The egg was meant to be released at that point." He gave me a confident nod and it was consoling.

"Yes." I said. I could tell that my tears were swirling but I didn't let them stream down. The words of the falcon reminded me that a long time ago someone had said to me, "Everything happens for a reason." It was from an elderly gentleman with silver beard and a maroon-colored hat.

"Maybe one day we will see the egg again." I said.

"Maybe." Bulkee repeated, coming to a relief.

"And if the TimeBook is precisely how you described, it must be sought after by many." Ori continued and he reached forward. But instead of snatching it out of me, he merely touched the book with his crest.

As soon as it came in contact with the falcon, the TimeBook moved. Sliding off from my hands, it rolled onto the ground. It stood erectly on its side. Then very slowly the book closed itself and began to reduce in size. It shrank to the point that it was almost undetectable amongst the shiny pebbles.

_We can't lose it!_ I rushed to the ground and quickly seized it. I was unable to comprehend what the falcon had done. I just held the book tightly in my fist, till I felt the movement coming to an end. I released my grip, opening up my fist. On my palm the TimeBook looked like a squarely shaped almond. The thin chain, which had served as the bookmark before, draped down from the side.

"A necklace. Much easier for you to keep it now." Ori said signaled for me to put it on. I noticed a spark in his eyes.

Indeed a necklace it was, with the TimeBook being the pendent and its bookmark the chain. I looped the necklace around my neck. The delicate pendent dangled right below my collar bones. It fitted me perfectly.

"Protect the TimeBook and it will show you the way at critical points." Ori told me.

I wondered whether he knew where I was headed. "I plan to greet the Prince and present him the TimeBook and ask him to send me home," I explained.

"Send you home? You do not belong here I suppose." Ori said, looking away. He seemed to have noticed something in the air. The sun had sunk further away from our view, appearing muddled.

"No. Somebody had taken me here. And I don't know why." I answered.

"Just remember, the TimeBook will take you to where you should go," he said it again and then he warned, "But be vigilant along the way." The light around his features dimmed. I thought that I had caught a glimpse of concern. But he turned to face me again, a smile surfacing around his slightly curved beak. "Now goodbye!" Without further delay he sprung off from the ground and headed upward. I watched Ori till the outline of his figure merged with the horizon.

It was just me and Bulkee again. The glaring pebbles on the ground encircled us. Despite the gloom of the sky, these gravels were bright, as if having soaked up all the sunlight. They shone with their seemingly undisturbed luster. They were so luminous that it was hard to stare at the ground without getting dizzy. The scenery certainly accentuated the ambiguity of the place. I began to sense that returning home might not be as easy as I had hoped. It seemed that everything around me offered nothing but a secrecy that awaited me to investigate.


	7. Chapter 7

Part II  
_  
The pervasive darkness absorbed the sound from the dialogues of the observers._

_"She took the bait." The first one said. _

_"She is as gullible as she looks," followed another. _

_Then the third one, a small reserved figure shrouded behind his companions, spoke with his distinct scratchy tone, "You must do your best to keep her in here. You understand?"_

_"Don't you worry! We are adroit at this." The first two replied together. Then one of them added, "The path will get her deep into the place. And I had loosened the string when I gave her the pouch. She will soon lose it and be forever strayed."_

_"Even if she reaches her destination, we can still keep her. We have an alternative plan," added the second observer. _

_"Don't you underestimate this." The small and devious figure admonished the other two abruptly, "I almost got her at the river but something strange happened and she got away. I still have to look into it. You must stay alert." _

_"My Warden Gerkolli, you will keep your word and let us rule this place?" One of them asked, changing the course of the dialogue. _

_"When the Prince is declared as King, I will make the appropriate arrangements." The Warden hissed impatiently with his gravelly voice and then he trailed away. _

_There were just the two observers left. They stood watching what was happening in the near distance, their faces convulsed into distorted smiles. Finally one of them discreetly walked up to where they were gazing at, and retrieved what appeared to be a bag from the ground._

_"Our plan has worked. She's lost." The observer said. _

_"Why didn't we just bury her right back then?" asked the other. _

_"If killing her was that easy, the Warden would have done it already." _

_"Is that so?"_

_"He cannot harm her. The timeless nature of AohhoA means that she remains immortal as long as she stays here." _

_"So he just wants to keep her here in eternity?" The second observer jeered. "How strange that he is devoted to this girl when the Prince is busy with the Ashendrons!" _

_"Why should we care? As long as we do what he asks, we'd rule this place." The first observer said in a triumph. _

_The two of them giggled at their boiling conspiracy, their eerie laughs cloaked by the ghastly fog. _

Chapter 7

Up ahead there were rows after rows of knolls, but no path visible. _Where do we go now?_ I wondered. Then a light dab on my chest and I looked down to find the necklace pulsing and giving me a mild pull forward.

Bulkee also took notice of it. "The TimeBook is telling us to head that way." He said.

The pendent throbbed in the direction of a hill with a curvy slope. We advanced toward it, embarking on our journey again.

The hill was covered in crystal pebbles giving off a gritty texture and the sight of it made my throat arid. Climbing up the knoll was not easy because the pebbles grew finer the higher up we hiked. With each step the grits were more refined, turning into sand-like particles. I sank deeper and my feet lug me down. But at last we reached the crest of the mound.

"Look at that!" I said. The scenery of the other side was stunning. Below, the land appeared like a dazzling sea of crystal planks that jutted out from the ground. And the pieces came into view with their irregular sides gleaming. _Like rock candies. _I thought. I glanced around trying to take in everything the scene had to offer. It appeared magnificent. And something else about it captivated me.

"It's a labyrinth." Bulkee said. He pointed out that the planks followed a particular pattern, rendering sinuous paths. The field was a maze of some sort and right in the middle of it was a lake shaped like a teardrop.

The discovery had me energized. We were clearly looking at a new Pocket. I sat down on the crystal dust and Bulkee rose to my lap. We slid down the hill in a swift and we glided along the base of the mount for almost two feet before coming to a complete stop. The air on the other side was humid, damp with heat waves.

At the bottom of the hill I caught an eyeful of a purplish heap on the ground. The pile appeared like a worn-out fur coat that someone had forsaken. It looked hideous against the otherwise gorgeous scenery. I got up and tiptoed around the heap to avoid having any contact with it. But the stack moved right when I passed by. Instinctively I peeked down and immediately I jumped. I was met with a set of eyes that were opaque but spirited.

"It's alive." I whispered to Bulkee and leaned closer. By the size of it I judged it to be an animal, probably a bear.

Upon seeing us the beast reached out his arm. And I leaped back. But when he labored to rise from the ground, his arms jolted and his whole body quivered. He was clearly too weak to move. I wondered if he was sick, and I stepped closer to him despite Bulkee's protest. Nervy I was but not without an urge to check if he was alright. I bent down and proffered my hand his direction. Just then the beast strike, swinging his arm at me.

At the sudden attack I swayed backward and fell onto the sand. From my shorts the glass canteen that Mrs. Lethan gave me tumbled out. I flustered. And the furry beast raised his arm once more. I caught hands that looked like mankind.

"You want this?" I came to see that it was the bottle that he went for. And the flask rolled away and escaped his grip by a half inch. I picked up the bottle. I recognized the despair on his face. He was in need of the drink. The way he sniffed the canteen told me that he was suffering from dehydration and he wanted the liquid inside. I certainly could relate, because the torridness in the air was hard to bear. The fervor began draining sweat out of me. And the popcorns in my stomach soaked up any fluid I had left. "Have it." I said, unscrewing the cap.

Very slowly I brought the bottle close to him. And he sniffed the air around it his nose dabbing along my fingers. My hand shook in reaction. Then like a person he took the flask from my palm and he chugged every drop of the tea in it. As he drank, the muddy color of his furs began to fade, as if allowing its natural color to return. I came to see that he had sheer furs that gleamed with a tint of purple. He, too, was made out of crystal.

When he was finished, the bear turned around and snuffed up the air around me. But suddenly he let out a throaty huffing and he began flailing his arms in an awkward angle along his shoulders, like he was trying to extinguish an invisible fire ignited at the back of his neck. Something was happening to him and I did not know what it was. Before it was all unclouded, the bear scudded away, camouflaged into the sea of sparkling rocks.

"The last one unveiled." Bulkee said and he strolled ahead of me.

_What does it mean? What is he keeping from me? _I didn't understand Bulkee's comment and I was not at ease. I tried to make sense of it. And the thought of the liquid brought up another uncomfortable awareness. How thirsty I had been! The lack of moist manifested as dryness around my tongue and a burning in my throat. The discomfort became increasing unbearable, especially now that I realized that I had given away my only source of fluid. I caught up to Bulkee, "I need a drink." I said. "Let's find the lake."

"We don't know if we should maneuver through the labyrinth." He cautioned against it. He was wary.

"It didn't seem that complicated." I said. I remembered looking at the lake from the top of the hill. Locating it should not be too difficult. _Besides, what other options do we have?_ I reminded him that the TimeBook locket had pointed us straight to the maze.

At last we started walking up to the edge of the labyrinth. As we approached, I determined the cause to the rise in temperature. The crystal rocks, despite their glacial looks, emitted intense heat waves that turned the entire area into a furnace. Even though they seemed moist with their various facets smooth and glossy, the boulders were dry. Some of them struke me as appearing like figures. No. More like figures casketed inside the planks. The spookiness of them made me grow fretful. I shrugged off the buzz inside me. _We will get there. There will be a way._ I told myself.

With rocks all about a foot taller than me, the conglomerate offered no observable route. We wandered around for about a mile but it seemed that in every direction we turned, we came across planks identical to the ones we just passed by. It was difficult to solicit any visual landmark. _How do I get to the lake?_ I grinded my teeth against the bottom of my lips. I could taste the anxiety in the cracks. I was about to propose for a break, if it had not been a series of giggles that sounded from behind us.

"Did you hear that?" I whipped around. Bulkee shook his head.

But there went the tittering again. "Hehe. Hehe." It was faint but audible, not far from where we stood. Now Bulkee caught it too. The two of us remained in silence, waiting. When the giggles came around again, they were heightened by our stillness. I was certain that the source was behind a crystal pole just several feet away.

"Who's there?" I asked. But only shuffling sounds arrived in response.

Then somebody said, "The round girl talks." It was a girl's voice.

"Yes, the round girl talks," followed by another.

_Who is the "round girl"?_ I wondered. _And who is talking?_ I approached the pillar slowly. Before I was near, something very bright appeared from behind the pole. I had to squint, adjusting my sight as I backed a few steps, to see a slim statue of a girl materializing before me.

With shrieking giggles she walked up to me till I could feel a hot breeze from her presence. She was as glimmering as the post she was hiding from, and with skin so smooth that she looked like a skillfully carved ice sculpture. I studied her features—her straight nose, round eyes, and curved lips—all of which formed an expression that suggested the significance of her status. She extended her right hand under my chin. Her fingers tapped softly bringing billows of ardor. I looked at them but didn't know what to do.

Bulkee, however, quickly caught the crystal hand and pressed his lips on it. The girl tittered again, apparently pleased. But her gibbering was incessant and almost eerie to my ears. At the last of her snickers, another crystal sculpture emerged from behind her and stood by her side. They looked identical.

"I am Crystaline, the enchantress of the crystal arena," said the first sculpture, her voice chirpy.

"And I am Krystaline, with a K, the enchantress of the crystal arena," the other one followed with the same chirpiness.

I noticed that Crystaline' eyes had a tint of brown and Krystaline's green.

"What are you doing here, round girl?" Crystaline asked.

"Round girl?" I flustered. My eyes scanned around the area.

"Yes, you, the Round Girl," Krystaline repeated, pointing right at me.

By the word "round", they clearly implied "chubbiness". And I found it strange that they imposed the descriptive cap on me. _I've had my fair amount of suspicions about being too lanky and angular as a gymnast. But I'm never concerned about being "chubby". _

As if reading my confused look, Crystaline laughed, "Aren't you? Look at how plump you are!"

_Plump? Okay. That's too much. I might have had a bit too much popcorns. _"But I am not round." I said, seizing their gape.

"Oh the disgust! Come and take a look." Crystaline piped and swiftly seized my hand, hers swelteringly hot. And she and Krystaline began to run.

I dragged my feet after them till they took me to a large crystal plank with a flat and reflective surface. "Look at yourself." They had me stand in front of it.

Inside the mirror, a young girl dressed in the yellow shirt and the teal shorts that I wore stood with a dumbfounded look. The puzzled mien froze on her fleshy face where her eyes and nose and lips were jammed together by her inflated cheeks. I stared at her full blown head and on it I detected familiar features. In awe I covered my mouth with my left hand. And the girl in the mirror covered hers with her right hand, her fingers round like baby corns. And the dab of jade in her left eye glistened. It was undeniable.

"That's me." I let out a hiss of air. It was hard to wrap my head around this drastic change.

Crystaline and Krystaline both scorned at my reaction, curling their lips in distain. "What did I tell you?" Crystaline sneered. The message behind her question was delivered with such a triumph that her scorching breath felt like flames.

Krystaline continued, "So why shouldn't we call her the 'Round Girl'. I mean, she is…"

"So round, indeed," laughed Crystalline, rolling her eyes.

"But that's not my name," I interjected, my sleeves shaking. "I am…"

"Well. Well." The enchantresses began fuddling at the folds of my shirt. "So you do have a name. What is it then?" They both asked.

I stood there muted. I told myself that I didn't have to answer to a tease. It would just encourage them to taunt more. I was familiar with that. So I turned up my face and held my head high.

"A shy girl, she is." Krystaline commented.

"Or certainly a defiant one," said Cystaline, leaning in to examine me.

"Her name is Sasha Ears." Bulkee interjected, breaking off the tension.

"Oh! Look at that." Crystaline turned to my friend and chuckled. "What a diminutive thing!" She lifted an eyebrow at him as if she just took notice of him.

"How puny!" Krystaline concurred with the same amused look.

Seizing their attention, he straightened his back, "The name of the knight is Bulkee!"

But Crystaline already turned back to me. "So why are you running around in our arena?"

"I am hoping to find some water," I replied. My throat was now itchy from dryness and the urge to sate my thirst pressed. "From the hill up there I saw a lake in the maze." I said.

"You saw it?" Crystaline glared at me.

"I thought so." I hesitated.

"She thought that she'd seen it." Krystaline said.

"Sure! She's seen it. The Lake of Tears." Crystaline exchanged a quick glance with the other enchantress. She twirled a strain of hair around her pinkie, "You need a drink and we will point you to it."

"Right to it!" Krystaline said in accordance.

Their offer seemed too eager to be trusted. And their smiles were presented with such an exaggerated charm that I grew uneasy. In my head I began tallying ways to decline their proposal. But a sea of fog started to form around us, closing in from the distance. The visibility of the scene deteriorated and I felt that my mind was clogged.

"Let me tell you where to go," Crystaline held out a small, beige-colored bag with a string attached to the tip. Her hand slid into the pouch and when she withdrew, a stream of powders trailed down to the ground from her fingers. "Look closely." She said.

It was a line of pastel violet. Its pale gleam was almost undetectable but I could see it travel into the edgeless fog. I watched until Crystaline dispersed all that was in the bag.

"Have it," She stretched her lips into a letter "U", and dropped the empty pouch onto my open hand. "Follow the trail. At the end of it you will find the Lake of Tears. But just one thing. You have to scoop up the dusts and glean them back into the bag as you go. You will get to the end, as long as no trace is left behind." She shot a look at Bulkee and in a hushed voice she said to me, "Be sure to do it without any help. Else you will never find a way out." With that she and Krystaline twirled around and glided away into the maze, where the fog swallowed them altogether.

I held the bag tightly and debated whether I should proceed. _Something's not right_. I knew. My intuition waged against taking the offer. But I didn't know if I really had an option. "Let's follow the trail." I said to Bulkee.

The sun casted a dusky maroon tincture onto the fog that had grown into a semi-opaque wall. With Bulkee on my shoulder and the pouch looped around my wrist, I started walking and extracting the powders. I washed the ground with my palm and loaded small collections of the fine articles into the bag as I traveled. Periodically, I had to trudge ahead with my knees pressed up against my chest to pick up the residuals. I had to check the track constantly, because I could barely distinguish the tinge of violet from the shiny pieces on the ground.

The repetitiveness of the tasks combined with visual impairment was hard to endure. Worse, I had lost my usual tenacity due to the extra weight. My unsettling stomach seemed to be rushing itself out, the added mass weighing me down. The scorching air resulted in overwhelming humidity that manifested as small pearls hanging above my eyelashes, further obscuring my view. I was drenched in sweat and I was huffing, even though I had only walked for less than twenty steps.

"Bulkee, I need to rest." I declared. I could feel waves of heat cutting into my lips when I spoke. I threw myself onto the ground that felt as soft as memory foam. I spread out my arms and legs and I roamed around letting out relentless sighs of relief. I dug my feet into the warm sand, my toes wiggled inside the crystal dusts. I threw my head back and had a fleeting vision of being in a descending elevator. It felt good.

But Bulkee was alert. "The smog's getting to us." He said and pointed out that the haze could complicate the situation. And he was right. The fog did not just cloak the view. It shrouded a devious conversation taking place just a few feet away. I had learned of it only later on.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

From the cradle of sand I lowered my chin and looked out to the arena beyond the tip of my nose. The shimmering boulders appeared to have melded into the background, their outlines indistinguishable. Nothing was clear in sight. I shifted my lower back, trying to sit up. But a cold sweat spread my back, when I realized that I couldn't move. I couldn't raise my arms nor sway my legs. It was like I was chained to the sand. Fright kicked in, when I saw that I had been completely shrouded. From my feet, my calves, my thigh, my stomach, my chest, my arms, my hands, my shoulder, and all the way up to my neck, the crystal dust spread all over my body. I was being buried into the ground.

_And I'm sinking!_ I became aware. I was sure that I was plummeting fast. The sensation sent chills down my spine. "Help!" I called out in a desperate wail. Bulkee pranced over to my side. But he was not much of a help. He tried in vain with his minuscule hands to pull me up.

I had sunk indeed. But the sense of plunging was a false alarm. As it turned out, my muscles had fallen into numbness after resting. When I finally propped myself up, I was wakeful. "We have to hurry," I swiped Bulkee off the ground and I scurried off into the fog.

With the fog ingesting the light, the track was even more difficult to detect. And little did I know that the half-filled pouch had slipped off my wrist. It was not until after I had gathered another pile of trail powders that I learned of my mistake.

I bit my cracked lips and rushed back immediately. The ground, however, gave out no clue as to marking where I rested. Our surrounding grew sable and the fog enclosed upon us. I wished that I had a flashlight or even a torch, because I just couldn't see. I fought back my frustration and I pressed my palms into the ground. I patted the dust in a swift motion, rummaging for the lost pouch.

"The fog is getting too dense. We have to go now." Bulkee urged. We both knew that the bag was gone and we ought to move along before the smog muddled the view completely.

But there was another issue. Because we had rushed for the pouch, neither of us kept track of the path. The place was confining with its murkiness._ How do we get back to where we left off? _The sweat formed along my forehead began rinsing down my face. With all that I had gone through, my legs gave in finally and I dropped to the ground.

"Don't give up." Bulkee paced around me.

But I didn't want to move again. I sat in silence till all of a sudden I felt a jostling like I had been jabbed by a needle. I leaped up but the stabbing went on, twice and more, to my buttocks and my legs. I hopped around and caught an eyeful of violet shimmers specked all over my legs, where I felt the minuscule jolts. I thought they were the powders from the pouch. But what puzzled me were the sparks.

When the puncturing started again, I had no doubt that the powders were charged with electrons. I experienced zaps of electricity only once when my fingers accidentally gripped the metal while I unplugged my hairdryer from an electric outlet. I whipped around, hands brushing and legs kicking, as I dusted off the powders. When I was done, however, I was even more panicked. I had spotted something else in the dreary smog.

There was a violet globe with intense radiance in the distance. The glow was so blinding that I had to back a few steps and braced myself with my arms. Through the crack between my arms I saw that the intensity of its radiance increase. It didn't take me long to realize that the sphere was not leading a way. Rather, it was coming straight at me.

When I heard the warning sounds of sparks, it was too late. The globe slammed electrons right down at me, stripping me of my senses. I felt quick intervals of lightning bolts zapping away at my flesh. The voltage was not deathly but it was high enough that I turned immobile. I watched my body spasm until something hit me and I dropped to my knees. Bulkee had battered me with one of my fallen shoes. After he broke me free, we were on our feet running with fanatic leaps. And the globe chased after us.

"That Imajigo thing that you said? Can you make up something to stop this?" I shouted, projecting my voice over the noises behind us.

"Yes. But what do you want?" He asked.

"How would I know? Can't you just create something?" I lashed out. I didn't understand why he would ask me. _Isn't he the one who ought to know?_

In an abrupt stand, Bulkee turned around and faced the ball of lilac.

"What are you doing?" I asked, alarmed that he might be out of his mind again.

"I have to focus." He shut his eyes.

There was nothing I could do but waiting. Hands to my face, I tried to block the electric flickers from blinding me. A lot of things speared across my head but none stayed long enough for me to figure them out.

Against my knuckles I peeked through the gap between my fingers, and found the globe approaching to engulf us. Then there was a punch into my palm and my arm plunged. I was sure that torment reached me again. But I heard Bulkee say, "There it is."

I cocked down my head and found myself holding a shaft with a cross-guard. It struck me as a sword at first but it was unfitting. There was a large glass pommel set atop the rubber handle, oversized for the hilt. "What is this?"

"You are the one who has to figure it out." Bulkee snapped at me, followed by a smattering of grunts.

I was getting frustrated at his precarious attitude. But this was not the moment for a standoff. I had to act fast. _At least I have something, this extended club of some sort._ I thought. _Right, a club more likes it_.

In rhythmic gymnastics, a club was a type of apparatus that gymnasts manipulate in competitions. With a narrow handle it bulged at one end, just like the part below the cross-guard of the shaft in my hand. I found a sudden assurance. I knew how to use this stuff.

I was backing away thrashing the elongated, sword-like club, when the ball of electrons caught up. I span it and created a plane of shield with its rapid rotation. I wasn't sure if the shield could offer any real protection, but I went ahead anyway.

In place of a straight blade, there was a group of wires set above the cross-guard. The wires were all entangled resulting in multiple points. When I thrust the club, these points sliced into the globe segmenting it in a whiff. The sphere broke apart, spewing out electrified wafts all around me. The scattering clusters were packed with electrons greater in number than the dusts on my legs earlier. I began hopping about. My training in gymnastics helped, especially dodging these fully-charged attacks. As I veered around, I found masses of electrons affixed to the tips of my wires, sending streaks of electricity down to my handle. Against my impulse to drop it, I squeezed the club, not letting go. I had to trust it for there must be a reason that Bulkee created this piece.

And soon that reason manifested. The veins of glints from the segmented sphere traveled along the stems of wires, temporally out of sight through the rubber handle, and then went straight into the pommel. The glass bulge lit up immediately with copious strips of electrons packed inside. It was now clear to me that my bludgeon of defense was something that extracted and stored electricity. Quickly the clusters around me diminished in numbers. I held the club tight, keeping it balanced in my fists till my surrounding almost blackened, and the only source of light was in my own hands.

I flipped the club and held it like a torch. I was saved from destitute of both vision and hope, "Thanks," I said to Bulkee. He mumbled something back. Now with the torch we went on with the search.

I was thirsty still, itching to suck dry the humidity in the air. I rinsed my cracked lips with my tongue and tried to ignore my discomfort. Up ahead the fog seemed to have dispersed somewhat. Through the mist I was able to make out the contour of some figures in the distance. Then my eyes locked on it — the Lake of Tears hedged by crystal rocks along the bank. The view before us was stunning and I was so captivated that I had to drop my pace to take it all in.

The Lake set amidst the crystals without any turbulence, rendering a sense of serenity that sharply contrasted to the irregularity of everything else around it. Its water appeared translucent to a degree of obsessed clarity, capturing the reflection of the encompassing planks as an unnervingly still image.

A glance at it almost immediately satiated my thirst. A sense of relief rushed up to me. I drew up the last bit of strength left in me and I sprang to my finishing line.

"Take it easy, Sasha." Bulkee cautioned, while I kneeled down by the shore.

_Something is different._ I noticed as I gazed into the Lake. I caught a change in my own reflection. In the water my face had shrunk from the round cheek, the puffy eyes and the sausage lips. The healthy glow around my face returned. I traced the outline of my cheek bones. They were defined, giving a distinction between my chin and neck. I recognized the girl in the Lake as who I was before the kernel field. I looked down at my own hands and found my fingers no longer baby-corn like. Having rummaged through the smog, I had shed off the excess weight.

Quick to celebrate, I tucked the club of electrons under my arm and cupped my hands together and I reached into the Lake. The water was cool and comforting. I brought it right up to my chapped lips. That was when I heard a scream. "What are you doing?"

I snapped around and jumped at the sight of one of the enchantresses. She glared at me, her brown eyes fiery with distraught. It was Cystaline. "I see that you got here fine. Well done." She uttered bitterly and glided over to stand between me and the Lake. "Now where is the pouch?"

I stammered as the tension mounted, "I lost it. I don't know how it happened, but when I went back for it. It wasn't there."

She stepped close, her face right up against mine, "You are not supposed to find your way here. What happened? Someone helped you?" She suddenly reached down and clamped Builkee by his throat. With a violet throttle, she began to rock him as if to shake an explanation out of his distorted body. The attack happened so fast that I was mortified. And I froze.

It was only the sound of a bang that ended the assault. The club of electrons under my arm imploded suddenly, causing me to hop to the side.

"What was that?" Crystaline hissed. Her look of anger rained daggers on me.

Yet I found nothing, not even debris left on me. The club evaporated just like how Bulkee's boat did. So I pressed my lips together, not admitting nor denying. Something told me to better stay quiet. At my reaction, Crystaline thrust Bulkee down with a furious throw. I budged just quickly enough to catch him.

Out of nowhere the other enchantress emerged along the bank. I watched her swiftly delving her hand into the Lake. And I backed away a few steps as she strolled up to us. "She is here, isn't she," Krystaline said. "I say we let her get her drink. That's only fair." She gave a subtle nod to Crystaline, a gesture that made me ill at ease again.

With a wide smile that erased half of her face, Krystaline yanked my arm and pulled me to kneel by the Lake. "Drink up." She said.

Unable to resist any longer I leaned forward.

"Don't touch it!" A shout shot to my ears from behind.

My head popped back up. Before I could even locate the source of the outcry, I was appalled at what was happening to the Lake.

From where Krystaline had once dipped her hand in, ripples formed. Along the rapid circular motion, the pellucid Lake morphed into something obscure. It was as though there were two movements happening simultaneously with one force extracting the currents away from the center of the ripples and the other driving them into a collision. The compaction caused the water to segue from translucent to opaque and from fluid to rigid. White ridges formed on the surface, gravitating around the ripples as they pushed out thick substances. The process spread from all around the bank to the middle in just a blink of eye. The Lake of Tears was crystallizing. And everything inside it turned stark and lifeless.

I was overwhelmed by the coagulation of the Lake, the temperature of the air that went from cool to burning hot and then to an aching chill, and the possibility that I was to be caught in it. _And to be ripped into pieces! _The moment that I realized the potential damage, I leaped to my feet and I began fleeting away from the enchantresses.

But something slapped over my face and shut my vision. The next thing I knew, I was being carried and moving apace.

It was about two hundred steps later before we came to a complete stop and I regained my vision. I found myself hemmed in the arms of a purplish white bear, and Bulkee dangling off the edge of its shoulder, clutching its fur. And we were at the center of the crystallized Lake.

At shore the two enchantresses stood glaring at us. They seemed infuriated. "It's the blind cub. He's taken the girl!" I heard Krystaline screaming. "We should have just slain it right at its birth," hissed Crystaline. "I always know that that twerp's up for no good." From far I could still see her delicate features mustering together and forming a hideous look.

"Don't worry." The cub spoke, breaking their vicious comments. "They cannot get to us. The Lake's temperature had dropped to a point that could freeze them."

The scheme that the enchantresses devised to entrap me had backfired. Now they were unable to reach me because a simple touch of the icy pond would immobilize them.

"Drink this first," the cub offered. I found a humanly hand below my chin. On it was a small bowl filled with water. Pure and clear. "I saved it before they crystallized the Lake." He said.

I brought the bowl to my lips and took a small sip. The water was refreshing and the sense of recuperation rushed up to me. Without further hesitation I gulped it all down. "Thank you." I said as I wiped my lips with the back of my hand.

"No. Thank you." responded the cub. "You saved me."

"You were the one who drank the entire bottle of tea." Bulkee interjected.

I recognized the cub. He was the one who collapsed on the road and took the canteen from my hand. Along with the recognition, questions flushed to my mind. "What's going on?" I asked. _How did the cub find us? Why did the enchantresses solidify the Lake? What is happening? _

"I came to the Lake of Tears in search of an exit. A true exit to the maze." The cub said. "When I was near, I overheard their conversation with someone who ordered your detention. And I had to do something to stop them."

_Who wants to detain me? _I was confused and alert.

"A true exit? What do you mean?" Bulkee asked.

"It is said that the real way out of the crystal labyrinth lies in the bottom of the Lake," said the cub. "The enchantresses had barred me from being near it. But I've been searching in spite of their ban."

The ice plank supporting us jolted. At the shore, Crystaline and Krystaline were moving in a craze. I could see their bodies twist while they flailed their arms in a series of restless waves. The billows of heat quickly hit me. The enchantresses were trying to amend their miscalculation. They were redirecting the torrid air from the stones to melt the frozen Lake.

And the Lake began to thaw. Its edge was liquefying and the progress visible all around the bank. "We are going to take a chance." The cub said. Before I knew what he meant by it, he drew a hefty punch at the ice below us. Gelid shards shoot into different directions. I felt the impact like an internal wave traveling from the ground all the way up to my hair.

Upon where the cub hit, a small hole appeared. No bigger than my two fists placed together. The cub brought his crystal bowl to the edge of the hollow and with a swift whisk, he span it. We watched till the sinning dish moved right atop the hole. Then with me in his arms and Bulkee on his paw, the cub jumped up.

"They are getting away!" That was the last holler I heard from the enchantresses. We must have appeared to slip away in an instant. But to me, the experience was to the contrary.

It was as though everything had turned into slow motion – as soon as we levitated, everything around us grew, or as I later realized we had shrunk. We kept on shriveling till we delved into the bowl. And the gyrating motion of it worked like a drill. We simply drilled our way into the still frozen Lake. Above us the light converged into a single point.

"We are heading to the true exit." The cub said, leaning against the edge of the bowl.

"I am Sasha. Sasha Ears." I said. "What's your name?"

"My given name is Sye Eiersim. But no one calls me my name." He answered frankly. As he spoke, I noticed the furs around his face shedding, revealing pale skin underneath. And to my amazement, I discovered humanly features from his face – ample cheekbones, thin but large lips, and a straight nose that heightened his strikingly beautiful face. He looked like a man draped in a shroud of furs.

"Bulkee," My friend introduced. "The knightly guard of the AkxieMoreRun Forest. Also one of the Enlightened Seekers."

"The legendary Enlightened Seeker?" The cub examined Bulkee carefully.

Flipping around Bulkee pointed to the back of his neck. "With the symbol."

I crawled inside the bowl to look. Three curved letters like a tattooed design scored on his neck. "A.S.E."

"The AohhoA Seekers of the Enlightened." Sye said. He careened to the side, and to my surprise, revealed identical letterings of "A.S.E."

"What exactly is the legend of the Enlightened Seekers?" I asked. The discovery had me itchy for an answer. Upon my question the light above me extinguished, leaving us to descend in complete darkness.

"The AohhoA Seekers of the Enlightened are said to serve a special purpose." I heard Bulkee say. "When the founding fathers initiated the removal of time, they also recognized that the process would abolish all types of change. They feared that such a drastic course of action could lead to unimaginable consequences. So they designated three Enlightened Seekers to inject change into AohhoA when it was appropriate. The legend has it that the Enlightened Seekers remain mostly dormant with their abilities undiscovered. But once awakened, they can alter the fate of the kingdom."

"We are all marked by the abbreviation 'A.S.E.'" Sye said.

"Do you always know of the letterings on the back of your neck?" I asked.

"The symbol only manifests when one Enlightened Seeker meets another." Bulkee explained.

"Yes. I felt it develop on me when I met you," said Sye.

"Right," Bulkee concurred. "Also, each Enlightened Seeker possesses some trades of Imajigo. Mine is called Ezionic with which I can create MindShapes. How about you?" He asked Sye.

"Seeing with Syoncept." Sye replied evenly.

"What is that?" I asked. I remembered his opaque eyes. And the enchantresses had called him "blind".

"I've always been blind." Sye continued, as if having read my doubts. "Syoncept is an Imajigo trade, and also an ability to perceive using senses other than eyesight. It's seeing without seeing."

I nodded before I heard Bulkee speak. "With these trades of Imajigo the Enlightened Seekers are catalysts for change. By taking series of actions, we can ignite a revolution," He sounded excited.

"If I could truly revolutionize AohhoA, I would seek the destruction of the Lake of Tears and reinstall life," Sye replied. "For this Lake the enchantresses had grown ruthless."

"What happened?" I asked in a whisper.

In a leveled tone Sye laid it to me. The Lake of Tears was once called the Lake of Life, situated in a limpid land of crystals, where many creatures of such clarity resided. The enchantresses used to look no different from the crystal stones. But during the previous Period of Chaos, they discovered a tactic to reshape their features. By drawing water from the Lake, they exploited its cooling temperature to chill and remold the scorching crystals, and ultimately creating a look of youth and beauty in themselves. Very quickly the enchantresses drained the water and exhausted the Lake of Life. After nothing was left they grew relentless. They began slaughtering their co-inhabitants.

"Because the Lake fed to us all," Sye said after a long pause. "Our tears stored its essence that enabled them to manipulate the temperature. They formed a maze to ensnare us and they massacred many just to have us shed tears. And that's why the Lake is now called the Lake of Tears."

The thought of the perfect features of Crystaline and Krystaline and their darkened hearts made me shudder. The story was sickening to me,

The cub continued, "The enchantresses spared me, only because of how I looked."

"You look like them." I let it out before I could cover my mouth.

But Sye responded calmly, "The similarity that you noticed could be from hybridization. Long ago before AohhoA became timeless, there was interbreeding amongst the Aohhoaians and those from the alternative realities. Some of us bore features that captured such traits."

I began to comprehend why Sye exhibited characters of mankind. The very handsome kind.

"But that was not why." He went on, "They spared me because I was blind and they deemed my tears not pure enough for them." He finished with a sigh.

And the three of us sat without further exchange. We fell into a state of pensiveness, till Bulkee tapped me on my hand, "At the river. The boat that I created, remember?"

"Yes." I heard him taking a deep breath.

"Well, it didn't last, did it?"

"No." I echoed softly.

"You see, I've figured out a way to create MindShapes. But I haven't gotten through their limitations."

I grew aware that Bulkee was opening up. In darkness I was unsighted of his expression but I could notice his unease in speaking about weakness. As a gesture of encouragement, I waited in silence.

But my reaction somehow stirred him, because he started to ramble as if needing to fill the silence. "I surprised you, didn't I? Upholding a MindShape requires concentration. But I was distracted. And pooh. It's gone. My limitations have failed you."

"Limitations are what draw us together." Sye joined in on the conversation. "I see the paths with my Syoncept, but I am not always able to get to them. Not all of us can recognize and attain our abilities right away. Enlightened Seekers are designed to have limitations so to create a need to combine abilities. One alone cannot drive change."

Sye's account had me wonder the identity of the third Enlightened Seeker. Immediately my mind leaped to Ori, the golden falcon who had rescued Bulkee and me. My instinct told me that we shared a unique connection.

Perhaps Sye's statement appeased Bulkee, his voice subsided at last. "Right. To join forces to achieve a common goal. Like you, I am also seeking for the installation of life. A true form of life, because I am sickened that my forest is nothing but a show."

"How so?" asked Sye.

"You see, the forest is just a conglomerate of replicated plants from some alternative reality. Upon scheduled points the Timekeepers engage the Apogee Course and bring in seeds that could be artificially cultivated into large plants. My forest is just an imitation of nature. A phony."

I remembered the synthetic appeal of the forest. The bleak truth about it boiled down Bulkee's responsibility to a mere title as the guard. Admitting it to us must make him feel insignificant, I imagined. But I was glad at his openness.

After the exchange, I explained my situation to our new friend. I talked about my strange abduction and my need to see the Prince and to be released from AohhoA. I was calmer the second time telling it, as I savored a sense of closeness that I had now built with Bulkie and the cub.

We continued moving still. It was difficult to determine the speed we traveled. But at some point I noticed a subtle source of light ahead of us and it was growing fast. Then came a tremulous thud, "Bam!" It was accompanied with a quiver. We were all tossed up in the air and in an instant the darkness flipped into a sea of brightness which gobbled us altogether.

"Something just came out of the ground!" I heard someone shout.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The crystal bowl flipped upside down. It hit the ground, pinned us inside and blockaded our view to the outside. But I could hear chatters. It sounded like we had attracted quite a crowd. I lifted the bowl just enough to peak. And I caught the sight of unvaryingly large shoes.

Sye pushed the ceiling with his elbow and rolled the bowl onto the side. Immediately he expanded, growing larger. For a moment my body was going through the same strange internal movement that I had experienced when I shrunk to fit into the bowl. I was returning to my natural size.

After the expansion halted, I was faced with the onlookers. The first things struck me were their large heads, resembling koalas but with enormous eyes that occupied two third of their faces. Full body of gray furs, they wore nothing except big shoes and tiny hats that made their faces appear even broader. Height wise, they were only a little taller than me. Their physical structure seemed disproportional and even comical to me. Surprisingly, they were standing not around us, but around something just a few yards to our left.

"Did you see that? I swear I saw something come out of it." One of them said, pointing to the ground.

"Yes, I did," responded another.

"I did too. I think it's a well," said a third koala.

"No, I think it leads to a storage closet," another one interjected.

As the koalas ardently engaged in their debate, I peeked into the assembly, and quickly discovered the culprit of their argument – a crack on the ground.

I pulled Bulkee onto my shoulder and I whispered, "I think that's where we had landed. How strange!" I was puzzled that we emerged from the ground, when in fact we had been falling.

"The elimination of time also meant a loss in the sense of dimension and space," Bulkee said.

Before I had a chance to digest the concept, the onlookers turned around and their eyes, numerous of them, fixed on us. As if having lost interest in the rift on the floor, they hurried over and encircled us. Unlike how they were with the crack, with us they were reserved. No one splurged out a speculation. _Maybe they are scared. _I thought. It was not surprising, because even the largest ones among them were a foot shorter than Sye, who stood tall and towering. I watched, as koalas nudged one another.

"You go up," someone whispered.

"No, you go," came a protest.

Their muffled discussion went on till finally one with a heavy frame was shoved out of the group. He trudged a few steps before heading up against Sye. I studied him. With a rim of white fur around his neck, he looked solemn. I couldn't read his expression. I was only able to make out my own reflection in his glittering eyes. I felt my body tensed up as I had no idea what was about to happen.

"That's Doe, Doe Joey Mosley," somebody from the crowd hollered.

"Say something, Doe! Ask them what they are and why they are in our Pocket," urged another voice.

But Doe didn't say a word. And my friend was silent and expressionless. A moment passed, nobody made a move or initiated a talk. The crowd fell into the pseudo amity of wordlessness, till suddenly someone yelled, "I know what's happening. They are doing a stare dare. Whoever blinks first loses!"

At his self-induced revelation, the anonymous utterer began counting. And the crowd followed with a stimulated craze, "One, two, three, four, five…" They formed a tight circle around Doe and Sye, and they stared intensely for detection of any subtle move from the subjects of their observation.

I recalled playing the game with my brother Sam. Upon an unexpected lock of eyes, we would fall silent, cease all activities we had previously engaged in, and do nothing but gazing at each other. No word, no sound, and no movement would occur. Only the exchange of a mutual understanding that a war had been declared. We would remain in such a stagnant arrangement till someone failed to keep his or her eyes open and gave into the impulse of blinking.

But Sye was not exactly looking at Doe, because he was blind. I noticed him sniffing the air, searching. He was trying to trace the scent of his crystal bowl on the ground behind Doe.

When the chanting hit "fifty three", Doe seemed to be reaching his limit. Like window blinds his eyelids dropped to a plane sheet. His body swayed as if fighting back an urge to shut it all the way.

Then without warning, my friend zipped up with full force. He came to a prompt stop only before his chest furs could spike into Doe. The crowd roared. Someone even squeaked. Shifting his body to the side, the cub raised his muscular leg, his toes wiggled in the air as if he had paused to decide from which direction he would make his first strike.

The onlookers simultaneously took a step back, guarding themselves in anticipation. The crowd was quiet, no one let out a breath of air. Doe's eye lids sank further, his body tense. He appeared to be on the edge of collapsing.

With his knee up to his elbow, my friend leaned his body forward, sending hairs along his torso into Doe's nose. Then swiftly he kicked his leg straight out, his feet fetching for the crystal bowl on the ground, and brushing by Doe who now looked as stiff as a stick.

Someone from the mass dropped to the ground. One koala burst out weeping. Distracted, Sye lost his balance and stumbled onward. Doe blinked once, twice and again and again. The koalas began to scatter aimlessly, wailing as they faltered onto one another.

At the brink of chaos, Bulkee jumped forward. "Truce!" He called out as he slipped in between Doe and Sye. His hands flapped like the flying shoelaces of the koalas. "We mean no harm." His voice was deep and steady and everyone turned and held their gazes on him.

"We are your noble visitors! We are passing by only to greet the revered Prince of AohhoA." Bulkee signaled for me to lift him up. On my palm, he stuck out his chest and announced, "Also to bring you a show presented by the AohhoA Enlightened Seekers."

Everyone's eyes now circled back to our large friend. He had retrieved his bowl but he had been so consumed in doing it that he was oblivious to the progression around him. Despite the curious stares, he spun the bowl and let it revolve in a smooth rotation along the tip of his finger. The artfulness of it made him look like a skillful basketball player showcasing his favorite trick. He rested the bowl on his stomach and it continued rotating until it shrank and sunk into his crystal belly as if it had always been a part of him. At that point the koalas went wild.

"I am done. Now let's go." The cub simply shrugged.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," without missing a beat, however, Bulkee turned to the koalas and clapped his hands together, "Thank you for watching the show! Please give a round of applause to," quickly turning to me he lowered his voice, "A little help here."

"Sye Eiersim," I announced, twirling like a showgirl, and feeling both excited and nervous at the seizure of attention. "Please. Put your hands together for Sye Eiersim of the Crystal Arena!"

No one moved initially. But Doe began to clap, and he applauded profusely. Following him the crowd cheered, breaking into a holler of relief. A look of admiration appeared on their faces, as Sye's reflection materialized in every pair of their shimmering eyes.

"That was good. You almost got me there," someone said.

"Yes, it was a great performance," assessed another.

"I told you, they are those folks who play tricks," commented another one.

The tension had been lessened. But the koalas started to lose interest in us and they began to walk away. The assembly dispersed quickly. I was reminded of our need to get going and I raised my hand to the TimeBook pendent. But there was no movement in return.

"Can you please tell us how to get to the Floating Palace?" I asked one bypassing koala. But he did not respond. And no one else bothered to stop.

Right then the sky darkened, like it was shrouded by a large piece of cloth. The pupils of the koalas contract all at once. "The cycle is ending," one of them mumbled and hurried off. Soon all the villagers were running into different directions, leaving me and my friends deserted in the middle of a five way intersection.

Then there was Doe, drawing a circle with his foot on the ground and glancing at us as if hesitating to leave.

"Doe, you have something to tell us?" I walked up to him.

"Well, I live on Straight-down-forward-and-left Street." He said softly.

"And?"

"And it's the sixth house."

I gave a series of quick nods, encouraging him to continue.

"So if you want to, you may come and stay for the night."

Pleasantly surprised I looked to Bulkee and Sye and sought for their thoughts on the invitation.

"The cycle is ending and we'd be in dark again," contemplated Bulkee.

"I am only offering because we've made friends." Doe added sheepishly.

"I recommend that we stay and plan our next move," Bulkee said, deciding for the team.

As soon as we made our choice, we were on our feet. Very quickly Doe led us to a leafless tree, the bark of which was covered in ivies that were knitted in to a net. The tree was so large that I reckoned that it would take at least five people linking hands together to form a complete circle around it.

Doe searched along the rough surface of the bark until he found a small lump. He turned it all the way till a large round bulge appeared on the trunk. He then twined his arms around the protuberance and pulled. While its bottom remained intact with the tree, the bulge fell to the ground providing a wide opening. And there were grits along the back of it that Doe used as stairs to climb up. Once inside he waved at us, "Come on in. And make yourselves comfortable."

One by one we climbed in. After we were all inside, Doe took us for a quick tour of his home. The interior of the tree was dark maroon in color. The house was spacious with two planes. What appeared as a living room set on the ground level with the resting space above it. Doe led us upstairs, where mats of different sizes were placed on the floor.

"Do you know how we can get to the Floating Palace?" I asked again.

"I can't answer you." He said apologetically. "And none of us can."

"Why do you mean?"

"We are comfortable with what we have. And there's no need to reach beyond our pocket," Doe shook his head. "But our village has an oracle. Her name is Guru Gumii. She knows stuff beyond what we know. She might have an answer for you." Watery-eyed he yawned, "But first why don't we get some rest? I will take you to her as soon as the next cycle starts." He sank onto one of the mats and before I could even respond, he was sound asleep.

I moved to another mat close to the window and lowered myself onto it. Its tenderness made me realize how tired I had been. Soon I was drifting in and out of sleep. I could vaguely hear Bulkee talking about something excitedly, and Sye responding occasionally with the terse "uh huh".

Before Sye's response turned into series of snuffles that topped Bulkee's chatter, I mumbled "good night" and relaxed into a deep slumber.

When I opened my eyes again, I awoke to urgent pulls at my sleeves and I heard Bulkee calling my name.

"What is it?" My vision was still not yet focused.

"Get up! Hurry."

I shot up and bumped my head against something hard. Everything around me appeared smudged, as if we were immersed in a veiled brightness. _Was Doe's bedroom ceiling that low?_ I gazed around.

What I hit was an arched dome that was clear enough to allow light through, but provided no view of the outside. We were clearly not where we were when we fell asleep one cycle ago. There was no sight of the mats on the floor nor of the maroon tinged walls. Instead I was hunched over in this curved vault that looked strange and yet familiar. Then it became clear to me—we were again inside Sye's crystal bowl.

There were noises outside. Sye reached underneath the bowl and lifted it up just enough so that Bulkee could peek out. "We are surrounded." He informed us. I caught a glimpse of the koalas outside.

Sye flipped the bowl and rolled it onto the side. His body expanded. Along with him, I grew, becoming taller and wider. As if having a déjà vu, we were again faced with a group of koalas circling around something nearby.

_It's him!_ I spotted a big koala with the ring of white furs around his neck. "Look, it's Doe over there."

"Who?" asked Bulkee.

"Doe!" I waved, "It's me, Sasha. I'm with Bulkee and Sye!"

The heads of the spectators rolled around with an identical expression that was best described as a mixture of amusement and fright. They all grew mute upon the sight of us.

"How…how…do you know my name?" Doe stuttered.

I walked up, approaching him tentatively. But he recoiled, stepping back gingerly as if he was frightened. "He doesn't seem to remember us." I was puzzled.

"This place is strange." Sye said, "Let me fetch the bowl and we'll get out of here." He stepped forward.

"Look. They want you. They've picked you." Someone from the crowd said. And Doe got bumped forward.

As he tumbled up, the rest of the Koalas leaped back. And there it was again – Doe standing up against Sye for the so-called stare dare. Sye moved forward to retrieve his bowl but Doe got in the way. Even though he tried carefully not to touch him, Sye tripped and almost fell because one spectator screamed. Disturbed, Doe began to blink uncontrollably and the crowd panicked, spreading all over the intersection. The scene was chaotic to say the least, until Sye picked up the crystal bowl and made it spin. The koalas, mesmerized, ceased running.

"I can't believe it." I bust out. "This is an exact repeat of yesterday!"


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

I didn't like the situation because I couldn't afford to lose another cycle. I didn't have much left considering the Period of Chaos only had thirteen cycles.

"Let's move along," Bulkee turned to the crowd and like he had done previously, he asked everyone for a round of applause, and facilitated the closure of the show and then asked the crowd to leave.

When the rest of the koalas lost interest and began to scatter off, there was Doe standing before us with a look of admiration. I said to him before he said anything, "You are very impressed and you would like to invite us over. I know." I went on, "We are already friends. I am Sasha. This is Bulkee. And that is Sye."

Doe studied each of our faces as he repeated our names, "And I am," he began to introduce himself.

"You are Doe Joey Mosley and you go by Doe. We know." I said.

"Wow. Wow." Doe's eyes gleamed. "How do you guys know? What are you?" He started to back away from us.

"We don't know exactly what happened." I answered, "But we had met once. Right? Bulkee, Sye?" I sought for their confirmation. But my friends shook their heads and Bulkee muttered something like "It's all you." _What's going on?_ I turned back to Doe, "Anyway. After we met you took us to your house."

"My house? You know where I live?" Doe asked.

"Yes. You live in the sixth house down the Straight-down-forward-and-left Street." I started walking toward Doe's leafless tree. The crew followed. "This one, right? You have two rooms and you have a bed made of mats." I said as I searched for the small lump along the bark. Having located it, I rotated the knob till a large bulge turned up. With one breath, I pulled on the protuberance. It dropped to the ground and revealed the entrance to the inside.

"I live here!" Doe exclaimed and rushed in. He peeked around as if checking to confirm. "How do you know?" He ran upstairs and sank into his mats.

"But do you believe me now?" I asked.

"Yeah. I guess so. Tell me more. What else do you know?"

"It's not about what I know." I said, "It's what I don't know. We met yesterday but now you don't seem to remember."

"What's 'yesterday?'" Doe asked. His big head tilted ninety degree till his ear was almost perpendicular to the floor.

"Yesterday means the day before, in the past, you know?"

But Doe was quite, like he was trying hard to grasp my statement. His head swayed back and forth. "You got it all wrong." He spoke at last. "We don't have all the 'yesterday', 'past' stuff. They are too complicated. We only have cycles and every cycle is the same." He drew a big invisible sphere with his arms.

I realized that measurements such as "day" and "week" had lost their relativity in the realm of the timelessness. And the term "cycle" was just an expression for the humdrum. I decided to change my approach. "Doe, the truth is that you had told us something quiet important," I said. "You mentioned a Guru. Please, bring us to her."

"Guru Gumii?" Doe was hesitant.

"Doe, you can help us," I pressed, "Just please us to Guru Gumii." I locked eyes with him till he returned a nod. Once he agreed, I was out of the door. I was glad to have Bulkee and Sye beside me because it was already twilight when we got outside. There were no street lamps, only a couple of koalas roaming about. We had to hurry before the murky sky obscured the path and turned this Pocket into a perpetual cycle of repetition.

Doe finally caught up to us and ran ahead. He led us to a tall tree that interestingly, had one side full of blooming flowers and the other bleak and barren with nothing but leafless branches. It created a sharp contrast that invoked in me an uncanny sense of balance between life and death. Atop where the contradistinctions merged, there was a small hut, its greenish brown color camouflaged into each side of the tree. It set about fifteen feet above the ground. Down to the ground from the hut there was a ladder made with interwoven ivies and twigs that were cleverly blended along the rough of the tree trunk.

"Guru Gumii lives up there. Let me go and pay my respect first." Doe held the ladder and asked us to wait for his signal. He climbed up and went out of sight. When he reemerged, he had with him another koala, a large figure with wide hands. The koala motioned for us to enter.

We began climbing the entwined ladder. Its texture was not as coarse as its appearance suggested. My contact with the ivies and twigs created an odd sensation that I was being pulled up by them. There were no door to the cabin. The ladder led us directly to the interior, which was dusky with the exception of two pale shimmers at the deeper end of the room. The space was small and felt tranquil. It was filled with nothing but a soft clicking sound, the interval of which further accentuated its quiescence.

The fitful light source moved. The shimmers were actually eyes of a petite koala, who rested on an elevated tabouret that took almost half of the already small room. The willowy figure slowly rolled two balls with its hands, producing the clicking nose.

"Guru Gumii knows why you are here," the large Koala standing next to the tabouret spoke, "I am the oracle's interpreter. She will talk to you through me." The Interpreter then turned to Guru Gumii, who opened her mouth. A drift of smoke rose from her oval shaped lips, ashen and narrow, as if her whole body contained nothing but the misty white fume. No sound came out, however. "I have been expecting you, the Enlightened Seekers." the Interpreter said on behalf of the Guru, "But only one of you might speak your demand."

Bulkee tilted his body and mouthed to me, "Bring forth your request." And Sye nodded, urging me to speak.

I was more than grateful for their generosity. But something about the room made me fidget, so I stared down at the floor, "My name is Sasha Ears." I said. My voice was frustratingly timorous.

Guru Gumii leaned forward from the tabouret and lowered her hand down and dropped one of the balls onto the floor. It glided forward and stopped right when it brushed against my left foot. Again the white vapor rose. Guru Gumii's eyes lingered around my face, and I felt her intense stare like two spotlights fixed at me but I could not bring my eyes to meet hers. I locked my hands together, yet failing to stop my fingers from twisting.

The smoke appeared frozen in the air. There was a moment of silence, uncomfortable for me but Guru Gumii seemed to be at ease with it. I knew that I had to say something, "I am here to ask how we can get to the Floating Palace and see the Prince of AohhoA Land." I spoke at last.

The white fume appeared again and the Interpreter said calmly, "Upon the next cycle, you shall follow the sun as soon as it rises. But bear in mind, the Prince is occupied. Highly occupied."

"I understand," I whispered.

"You must have learned then that the eternal King Wuiet has decided to seclude himself from Aohhoa, and trade in his immortality for freedom to be in the alternative realities that are beyond his control."

"Yes. I have." I responded.

"You must have learned also that when the King does so, it is up to the Prince to determine the course of the kingdom."

"Yes, I have." _Right, _I thought, _I need to find him before he seals the Apogee Course. _

"But do you know why you are here?" The Interpreter suddenly threw out a question.

I was caught off by surprise. I expected answers and not a question that I had never put any thought into. "It was a mistake," I heard myself murmuring. "Someone had taken me here by mistake." I shook my head to heighten the credence of my statement. The Guru did not respond. For a while the only visible mark of motion was the smoke that slowly traveled from her to where I stood. I began to feel a tension around my temple. I turned to the Interpreter, "Does Guru Gumii not think so?"

The fume found its way to me and the Interpreter continued, "Everything taking place in the course of life has its reason. There must be a cause to your arrival. But I see a veil. It has been casted over the truth. You must see it for it is greater than you can conceive."

I, trying my best, could not think of having anything to do with this place or its queerness. I wanted to tell them about the call I received and how it mixed up my trip to Vermont with someone else's to AohhoA. "It was just a slip-up." I said._ It has to be._

"Is that so simple?" The Interpreter translated. The question along with its weight lingered in the room. And the smoke looped around my neck like a white snake toiling me. It forced me to think, again.

"Can the Guru tell me who took me here?" I asked.

Upon my question, Guru Gumii nodded and leaned all the way back onto the tabouret. Then something bizarre happened. She tilted her head backward in an awkward arc to the floor her mouth wide open. She squinted, drawing her round eyes into two thin lines. The room grew dim. I could vaguely see the Guru's stomach flared as if she was inhaling something fast. All of the smokes in the room suddenly sailed back to where they came, converging so fast they appeared like serpents moving speedily across the room. As the fumes darted back to her mouth, the Guru convulsed violently until the Interpreter rushed over and pressed his hands on the back of her head.

Then Guru Gumii rose up, sitting just as poised as she had been before. The light to her eyes returned gradually.

"The one who abducted you had been carefully guarding a secret that is known to few. And the secret pertained to the reasons that you were taken." The Interpreter said. He then explained that the Guru had accessed very limited information because my abductor is a very powerful individual, whose dominance could not be easily crossed. "I shall not divulge the identity of your abductor but I will give you a riddle. Seek clues in it."

She proceeded to tell me the riddle through the Interpreter: "He who holds control to it which you may spend but with no way to receive, you may waste but with no way to save and you may kill but with no way to revive is controlled by the lacking of it."

With that the Guru closed her eyes. The only source of luminance in the room went out and the hut grew dark. The Interpreter extended his arm, guiding us to the door, "This village stays in a cycle of repetition. But you will not be expelled from the recurrence until you see the rise of the sun. Now hurry."

"Thank you." I responded and I nudged over to the ladder.

On the way down, I repeated the riddle over and over in my head. There were two parts to the puzzle that I needed to figure out—one was the "he", my abductor, and the other one was the "it". I knew that the key to deciphering the riddle was to first understand what the "it" referred to. But I could not conjure up anything that made sense to replace the "it" in the puzzle. _What is it that I may spend but with no way to receive, that I may waste but with no way to save and that I may kill but with no way to revive?_

"What do you think?" Once we were on the ground, I asked my friends.

Bulkee responded that he could compile gazillions of names for creations that I had never even heard of, or names for abilities I could never have seen in my wildest dreams. But none had the profile that made a good fit to resolve the riddle.

"The Guru might be referring to something that only exists in the reality that you are from." Sye inferred.

_That's right! _I thought to myself._ It's a riddle meant for me. _But there were way too many items that I could list. _Which one can it be?_ I let out a sigh, "I am so lost."

"We should head back to the village and talk to my fellows. They know the Guru and maybe they can help you," offered Doe.

"Right. It doesn't hurt to ask. Let's head back!" I said. I began to run, my heart throbbed fast. I needed to figure out the key to my returning home.

The trail was so winding that it looked as though someone had intended to keep us from reaching our destination.

"Look at the view!" Doe came to a yield. And we all stopped to check. To the side of the road, the sun dipped into the creek. "What a beautiful sunset!" He acclaimed.

But I noticed strikes of murk smeared around the giant disc. It left me the impression that the sun had been dragging down. "Sorry, Doe. We can't afford for another cycle to begin. We don't have time for this right now," I urged.

"Indeed we don't have time. No time to spend and no time to waste," Doe grinned, "More of a reason that we should stay and enjoy the view."

"Wait, what was that?" I span around.

"More of a reason we should stay and enjoy the view." He repeated.

"Before that?"

"There's no time to spend or waste," Doe tried to explain, "Time is irrelevant in AohhoA."

"That's it!" I sprung up and gave him a tight squeeze by the shoulders. "Time! That's the answer to the 'it' in the riddle! In our world, people are always talking about spending time, wasting time, and even idling to kill time. It makes sense." I said. "You may spend time but you can't receive it. You may waste time but you can't save it. And you may kill time but you can't revive it." I was excited. "Now the question is who the 'he' is in the riddle. Who in AohhoA has control over time?"

"I sure know the answer to this," Bulkee said. "AohhoA is a timeless place, the only connection one has to time is through the restriction of it. And there are three individuals. First there is the King. During his legacy he reigns over AohhoA and determines all cycles of being. And then there is the Prince. In the absence of the King, during the Period of Chaos, the governance of AohhoA is left up for the Prince. And lastly there's the head of the Timekeepers who hover around AohhoA, inspect all activities and make sure that there is no abnormal operation. So on different levels all three of them have control over the concept of 'time'."

"Out of the three of them, who could have taken me then?" I wondered.

"Come to think about it, King Wuiet has left AohhoA before you arrived so he couldn't be the one. The Prince has to face the invaders. I doubt that he initiated the call."

"And the head of the Timekeepers?" I asked.

"Uncertain, too." Bulkee shook his head. "You see, to bring you here, the abductor must have engaged the Apogee Course. The head of the Timekeepers has access to it but he doesn't have the right to transport a living being." Bulkee said, "Unless if he violated the sovereign rules, which is not hard to do with the Ashendrons' attack. But why would he disrupt the existing state of affairs that he's so dedicated to guarding? It doesn't make sense."

"The head of the Timekeepers." Sye interrupted, "Is his name Gerkolli?"

"Yes. Warden Gerkolli." Bulkee said. "Why do you ask?"

"I heard of him. No. In fact it was him whom I heard talking to the enchantresses at the Lake of Tears," Sye said, "He was the one who ordered them to entrap Sasha."

I gasped, overwhelmed by the revelation. Something about the statement terrorized me and in a strange way my body turned cold and rigid. I wanted to say something but my jaw was so tight that I couldn't move my mouth. Words hung on my lips and I froze. I shot a look for help to my friends.

"Hold on." Sye said. He walked to stand in front of me and he lowered his chin so his face casted over mine. He leaned in, so close that I thought his nose could touch mine. But he just raised his palms and formed a triangle over my head. And he whispered, "Let me see."

His face blurred into the triangle within which I started seeing images. Yet they flashed so fast that I couldn't catch any of them. I felt lightheaded. I was only vaguely aware of Sye looking like he was studying them. After the triangle waned, my knees unlocked and I slipped down, lapsing into his arms. "You were seized by your flashback." I heard him say, "And I accessed it to release you."

"How did you do that?" I asked with the little energy left in me.

"I used Syoncept, my specialty, a vision of the mind." He answered.

"Is it the triangular shape that you drew?"

Sye shook his head, "The triangle was just a portal to link Syoncept to your awareness. I can use Syoncept without a portal to visualize anything unhindered, like things before us. But to penetrate something on the level of consciousness, like your flashback. I need to create a portal. Do you want to know the techniques of drawing it?" He asked.

"Yeah. I guess." I said. But I was exhausted and resting on his shoulder made me feel reluctant to move. I felt him step to stand behind me. Supporting my back, he seized my wrists and straightened my arms out. He had me stretch out my hands and moved them close to each other, till my index fingers linked and my thumbs locked, and a triangle was formed in the middle. "There it is." He said.

I nodded, but in truth I didn't feel much difference. I propped up from Sye's embrace. "I don't know what I am supposed to see." I said.

"Creating the triangle is just the first step to understanding Imajigo." He grinned, letting my hands fall. "Now back to what we were saying. While I accessed your flashback, I caught you speaking with a group of creatures. They were flying around you, when you first arrived."

"Yes. They looked like music notes. They had tiny wings that flapped very fast." I became warily.

"Well, they are the Timekeepers." Bulkee perked up, "They can appear in any form that they believe is pleasing to their viewers. Did they say anything to you?"

"One of them did." I thought of Treble. "He talked about a promise and a secret. But it sounded like a riddle. And I didn't understand any of it. He also mentioned something about the honor of the status quo."

"The 'honor of the status quo'?" Bulkee said. "I am certain that they are the Timekeepers and you had spoken with Warden Gerkolli."

I wondered. _Could he be? _

"The abductor," Sye spoke as if reading me, "He must be. Remember the riddle? He, who holds the control to time…is controlled by the lacking of it. Like Bulkee said, Warden Gerkolli is in charge of keeping time, which refers to guarding the status quo. But he is also restricted by not having access to time, because AohhoA is timeless."

"Why would he bring me here?" I asked, "How can I find him?"

"The Timekeepers are hard to locate because they travel all around AohhoA Land." Bulkee responded. "But there's a check point. It's when the sun plunges into the Endless Sea. That's when the Warden pays his visit to the Prince. If you get to the Floating Palace right before the check point, you'd be able to see the Warden and the Prince both."

I bit my lips. By now the sun had sunk and the creek turned pallid.

"Remember the Guru's words?" Sye spoke. "We need to first wait for the direction from the sun when it rises."

"True. Let's stay for the night and be sure to get up before sunrise." Bulkee responded.

With our guide, Doe, we headed back to the koala village. The cycle had launched its transition into the next one, and the sky merged with the colorless earth. Everything appeared gray and offered nothing promising to the outlook of what was ahead.

Lying on the mats in Doe's home, I couldn't stop but replaying my conversation with Guru Gumii. I kept on telling myself that there was just a misunderstanding, and that I could straighten it out once I found the Warden and the Prince. But the Guru's question spoke volumes, "Is that so simple?"The question was unsettling and it weighted on me. I felt the night come down like a giant hand pressing over me, smothering any trace of hope.


	11. Chapter 11

Part III

_ "It is my duty to fend for the status quo." The Warden raised his chin as if his statement was not to be tested. His bowtie, sunk into his round neck, made his head look bigger than it actually was._

_"Then it is not your duty to abduct the girl." The Voice was keen to the point. _

_"I explained it to her." He protested._

_"Explained? You sent her a riddle." The Voice said._

_"I am doing it for AohhoA Land. If she goes back and they find her, AohhoA will be ruined. Things won't be the same!" The Warden grew defiant._

_"Do not forget that things are not the same, when you violated the rules to access the Apogee Course. You brought Alexandra Sasha Ears here and held her against her will. You've changed the value that AohhoA Land stands for." the Voice was adamant._

_"I did it without telling you because I was protecting you. The Warden softened his tone and compromised, "Prince Oriano, you are only safe when that girl is kept in here."_

_"My safety is not your concern nor is it your duty as the head of the Timekeepers. Go now and guard the stability of the residents. The Ashendrons are penetrating the Floating Palace. I need to concentrate my energy." Prince Oriano finally emerged from behind the curtain._

_Warden Gerkolli gasped, followed by a screechy outcry, "What has happened to you?"_

_The Prince looked like an apparition, his humanly features were only half visible and his wings appeared as if they had been torn off and pressed into the walls. He was evidently losing strength._

_"I have divided myself. I've released my astral form to be with Sasha. I will have her back to her world." He was determined. There was no room for negotiation._

_"How are you fighting off the Ashendrons when you are diverting your power? This is too much of a risk!" The Warden was squealing, his round body rolled back and forth as he expanded. _

_"Risk or not, my life is promised to her already."_

_"Your promise will damn us all!" As if his anger had imploded, the Warden dissipated in an instant. Then he reappeared; into the form of a music note, he had transformed. _

_Out of the window he flew, reasserting himself among his awaiting fellow Timekeepers._

_It seemed that no one heard the Warden mutter under his breath, "If we can't do with enticement, we will do with fear. I will do whatever I can to keep the status quo!"_

Chapter 11

"I have a shortcut for you to get home," Someone whispered.

At the sudden disclosure I bounced up from the mats. The possibility implied by the message made me wide awake but in darkness I couldn't discern the speaker. I waited, anticipating without making a sound. The night was quite again and I could almost hear the air flow through the room. There seemed to be nothing else besides the breathing of my friends who were sound asleep. _Maybe it was just a dream? _I thought.

There came the whisper again. "Sasha," the muffled noise piqued my attention.

"Yes?" I whispered back, feeling the prickles around my temple.

"You want to go home, right?"

"Yes."

"I will show you a shortcut. You just need to come with me."

"Where are you?" I squinted in the dark trying to catch the sight of the divulger. But he was clever enough to disguise his location. "And who are you?" I asked. It felt unsettling. Something flashed in the dark. Through the window I caught a figure resembling a music note. "Treble!" I called out.

"Quiet down!" His voice became coarse, as if he was aggravated by my sudden increase of volume, "I am Warden Gerkolli, the head of the Timekeepers. I know you've heard of me. Now come out of the room and be discreet."

"Can I get my friends?" I asked.

"No."

I hesitated.

"Listen," the Warden was almost inaudible, "I made a mistake taking you to AohhoA. And now I am sending you home. You are not going to bring them with you, are you? Now hurry!"

My heart fluttered like a trapped butterfly and something inside me pulled me back. I knew that I should be cautious but the offer was too tempting to refuse. I tiptoed to the window. "Where am I supposed to go?" I asked in a whisper.

"I will tell you. Just listen to my directions and meet me out in the lair." Warden Gerkolli rustled and then went out of sight.

From the window I climbed down the weaving ivies. With the Warden's voice by my ears, I trudged through a tortuous path. Eventually I came to the backside of a hill and the village was behind me. I stood in a flat area where the nightfall muddled the crossing line between the earth and the sky. I squinted and I was able to make out a den, the entrance to which was cloaked by nearby shrubs.

"You are here finally," From inside a showy figure addressed me.

I stared into the murkiness but I was unable to locate the speaker. "Warden Gerkolli?" I called. And I maneuvered through the plants and stepped into the pit. As soon as I had entered, I noticed the shrubs behind me slid together sealing the opening of the den. I was now in complete darkness.

The air was much colder in the lair than it was outside. Strands of drafts came through as if there were bats circling inside the cave. I shivered and I clasped tightly onto the edges of my shorts and waited for the Warden to unveil himself. For a while I could not see anything. Then fingers snapped. And the den lit up. The brightness was so unexpected that I experienced it like countless arrows racing into my eyes. I backed a couple of steps, only to find myself bumping into something soft.

I snapped around and I was surprised to find a bird with grayish white feathers. What seized my attention right away were its teeth. All of them crooked. I stared at it, as it stared back at me. Even though its beak cracked open like it was smiling, I could detect a sense of enmity in the way it examined me.

"Great seeing you again." Treble's voice came out, as the bird's beak moved.

_But he looks nothing like Treble_. I thought.

"You don't recognize me, I see." He came up to me, his teeth asserting their prominence. "How about this?" In a puff his tusks drew back, his feathers disappeared and his round body transformed – he had turned into the music note Treble. "Better? Or how about this?"

Before I could respond, he changed again, his color turned from white to red and his body revolted till he became someone completely different.

"Bulkee?" I questioned, nudging away from the figure.

"To your liking?" He asked with the same throatiness. "You seemed a little surprised. How do I explain this to you?" He transformed back to Treble and balanced his weight on one toe and stuck out his chest. "We, the Timekeepers of AohhoA Land, are known to be intangible, meaning that we are shapeless, just like the concept of 'time'. We are anything an onlooker projects us to be. When we first met, you mistook our descant as noises from your alarm clock. So you saw us as music notes." He went on, "And as the Warden, I have the liberty to present myself in forms of my will." He paced around me while switching back to the grayish bird. "I typically like being viewed as this bird of prestige, for my proximity and association with the King of AohhoA Land."

I listened without interjecting any inquiry. I just wanted to go home and be away from this strange bird and this place.

"You want to return home, I am aware." Warden said with his back toward, "And I have a shortcut. How perfectly things work out." His feathers convulsed as if the statement triggered a spasm in his body.

"Where is the shortcut?" I asked.

"You should ask 'What is the shortcut'!" He turned around, laughing. His smile looked like a mismatch to his stone-cold eyes. "But of course you wouldn't know. Let me gave you a taste of it." He clapped his wings together and declared, "A taste of home!"

The grainy dust on the ground began to drift away from where we stood. As if being brushed aside by a broom, the rivulets of dust gathered into a pile at the corner. And the ground revealed its smooth and reflective surface. Like a mirror, it captured the interior of the den in reverse view.

"Take a good look." Warden Gerkolli pointed at the mirror, while walking around to stand behind me. In an instant, the landscape of a city materialized beneath us. Houses appeared, separated by neatly trimmed trees along artificial grids of city streets. The aerial viewpoint made me feel like I was high above the ground standing on clouds in the sky. "Look closely," the Warden said. The mirror zoomed in on one of the residential areas. A light blue colonial house with decorative fence came into focus.

"That's my house!" I exclaimed. The sense of familiarity rushed back to me. I could almost picture my parents sipping afternoon tea in the family room, while my brother Sam ran around with his robot dog. The Warden urged me to lean closer. The view switched and showed the interior of a room. "That's my bedroom!" I said. The level of intimacy it had evoked in me was so overwhelming that I could almost smell the fresh lilies by the window. I kneeled down and reached out my arm, the yearning to touch it was crushing.

"Here is your shortcut to home!" Suddenly I heard the Warden shout from behind me. With his unnerving screech, I felt an unexpected blow to my back. Immediately I lost balance and tumbled forward. Everything turned dark and I lost my sight.

When I opened my eyes, I heard a gentle knock. "Sasha. Honey. Are you up?" I was startled to catch the voice of my mother. I scanned around. I found myself covered under a blanket, my very own quilt blanket. And Swallow, my cat, spread atop my hair on the pillow. I was back in my bedroom.

"How was your nap?" Mother asked through the bedroom door.

I turned. The alarm clock on my nightstand showed "2:40pm". _What is going on? _I was so confused. _Have I been sleeping this whole time? Or am I finally back home again?_ There came the knock on the door again. "Yeah. Good, I guess." I murmured.

"Come down for some cinnamon rolls, honey. I'm just done baking." Mother said. And her footsteps trailed off.

Fresh cinnamon roll was my favorite. I jumped out of bed and slid open my closet door. Shirts and dresses shot into view, all in different shades of turquoise, my fondest color. I liked its vibrancy and the audaciousness it invoked in me. The color always called for my attention in stores, hence these clothes in similar shades.

But purchasing them was almost routinely followed by self-doubts. _Can I pull it off? Is it too daring? Is it really me?_ I would ask myself. In the end these garments would be left in the closet waiting with uncertainty for an occasion to be worn. And I would walk away with something plain, typically jeans and a gray shirt that I could hide in so I wouldn't stand out.

Today, however, I felt different. I reached over and picked out a summer dress. I bought it on my fifteenth birthday but I had worn it only once. I went to school wearing it the day after I purchased it. But when I discovered another girl sporting the same one, I decided that it fitted better on her than on me. So I took it off after I got home and left it in the closet untouched, till now.

I brought the dress out from the closet. On it two shades of teal artistically blended together like two rivulets merging into one and then reaching for separation. The boldness of the green tint and the softness of the blue shade complimented each other. It was just the right balance for me.

Sliding into the dress, I pulled it up at ease. The fabric wrapped around me exactly the way I liked. It suited me perfectly and I felt confident in it._ Why didn't I realize this before? _After getting dressed, I headed downstairs. It crossed my mind only briefly that my closet contained way more turquoise-colored clothes than I had ever owned. I was too preoccupied to notice anything unusual. I was just excited to be home again. I wanted to tell my parents everything that I had gone through in AohhoA Land.

"Your favorite, honey." Mother looked up from the countertop when I entered the kitchen. As she arranged them, Father transferred the cinnamon rolls from the oven to a wire rack. I walked up and helped lay out the rolls. Meanwhile Sam dashed into the galley, dragging his little toy dog with him. He clasped onto the edge of the laminated countertop and tiptoed to get a peak of the treats. "Wait for them to cool off." Mother smiled, as he reached up and broke off a small chip from one of the buns.

Strangely no one said anything about my absence nor did anyone ask where I had been. The afternoon seemed as usual as any Sunday afternoons could be. But I began to grow uneasy.

Father took notice of my jitter. He filled the teapot with water and asked, "Slept well? Your nap was a little longer than usual."

"Yes." I responded. _Did I really just wake up from a nap?_

Mother placed all the cinnamon rolls onto a plate and brought them over to the deck in the backyard. Sam bounced up from the floor and followed her.

Through the window I suddenly noticed the trees outside. The leaves created nature's splendor with their shades of yellow, orange, red and brown. But something seemed odd about these colors. "What's the date today?" I asked.

"The 15th, Sunday." Father glanced over at the calendar hung above the sink.

"Which month?"

"October, of course!" Mother exclaimed and waved for us to step outside.

Fall was the season that I loved the most. _But what had happened to the entire summer?_ I almost burst out my question.

"You must be exhausted from yesterday." Mother said with a look of concern.

_What had happened yesterday?_ I wondered. But I decided to hold my tongue. I grabbed a cinnamon roll and took a bite. I missed the familiar flavor and the pungent yet aromatic taste. I gave an appreciative smile and replied, "Yes, it must be from yesterday."

"We are just so proud of you, you know." Mother went on.

My curiosity was piqued. Father came to the deck with the teapot. And steam bubbled up from the kettle. He poured the tea into three cups and lifted one up, "To our champion!"

"Champion? Of what?" I was puzzled.

"Of Nastia Liukin, of course!" Father smiled.

_I had won the junior Nastia Liukin Cup Series? The championship?_ I could not believe it. I had worked diligently for the interscholastic gymnastics meet. And winning the Cup meant that I would be an invitational to compete for the senior's event.

"You look like you just heard the news for the first time." Mother took a sip of her tea and exchanged a glance with Father.

"Well, your trophy is not going anywhere." Father teased, winking at me.

_My trophy? _I jumped up from my seat.

"It's in your room." He laughed.

"I will be back." I threw the last bits of the roll into my mouth. And I darted for the stairs. When I swung open my bedroom door, it was right there, sitting on my desk by the lamp. The trophy. The attestation of my merits. It depicted a female figure swinging her arms along her arched back. I picked up the trophy and studied it. The gold plated metal base marked the rank – first place, and even had my name engraved on it. I traced the contour of the statue with the tip of my finger and I thought, _Unbelievable._

It was not that the victory was unbelievable, as I had been so close to it the year before. But it was the fact that I had no recollection of the whole experience. _It just feels odd. _I grew uneasy. I had to sit down and think things through. But right then my cell phone rang. "Hello?" I answered.

"Sasha, Congrats again!" A familiar voice. It was my best friend, Vassie Ja.

"Vassie!" I said.

"Yeah, it's me. Whatcha up to?"

"Nothing much." I said. I didn't want to appear too strange but I was eager to tell someone what I had gone through. "I just had this strangest experience. Like I somehow went into a different world."

"What do you mean?"

"I was in this place where I was traveling with a red pear and a crystal bear. They had humanly faces and they talked. They were like werewolves except that they weren't."

"You don't make sense." I heard Vassie chuckle. I could almost see her rolling her eyes at my comment.

"I know. But we went through those incredible places, where eggs fly and bake bread loaves. And river is made out of popcorns. And I met the handsomest falcon that I've ever seen." I said.

"You just had a dream, or a trance?"

"Maybe." I hesitated. "But it felt so real." The experience would seem too outlandish to my friend, I knew. It was inexplicable even for me to make any sense out of it.

"You are just too exhausted from yesterday, Sasha." Vassie comforted, "Or maybe too excited."

"You are probably right." I agreed. Then I added, "But I am fine now."

"Good." She seemed unaware of my unease. "So dinner tonight at BeBo's? Let's celebrate."

"Yes!" BeBo was a diner located in the heart of the town. And it was also our go-to place for hangout.

"See you there at six, Sasha."

"See you."

I was happy to have finally returned home and being surrounded by everything that I was familiar with. But this intimacy felt fictitious when I compared it to what I encountered at AohhoA. Conversations with Bulkee and Sye were still vivid in my memory.

But memory was perhaps as flimsy as snowflakes falling from the sky. A snowdrop was crispy clear until it reached the ground, upon which its delicate edges would begin to fade. Then altogether it would melt away, blending with others into a puddle of water. Perhaps, my memory of AohhoA would dissolve, just like how snowdrops would.

I sat on my bed and scanned through every item in my room, as if trying to validate my return. My eyes landed on a small notebook that fitted in between two books on my nightstand. I reached over and picked it out. A brown jacket extended across the front page, wrapping around the notebook with a leather strap. The notebook was my diary.


End file.
